Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers has been named the American League Player of the Week for the week of September 11-17, Major League Baseball announced on Monday.
In seven games against the Yankees and Blue Jays, Devers went 8-for-20 (.400) with four home runs, five RBIs, five runs scored, seven walks, and two strikeouts. He was also hit by a pitch on two separate occasions in the process of reaching base in 17 of his 29 plate appearances.
Though the Red Sox went just 1-6 in that stretch, Devers is hardly to blame. After going deep twice in Boston’s final series of the year against New York at Fenway Park, the left-handed hitting slugger homered in the final two games of its series with Toronto at Rogers Centre.
On Saturday, Devers launched a two-run blast off Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt to give his side a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning. The Red Sox then went on to fall to the Jays in the bottom of the 13th as a result of a softly-hit, walk-off infield single off the bat of Whit Merrifield that Devers himself could not field cleanly.
On Sunday, Devers came through in the clutch once more, this time crushing a game-tying solo shot to the opposite field off Erik Swanson with two outs in the top of the ninth. Yet again, however, the Red Sox were walked off on by the Blue Jays as Matt Chapman played hero with a game-winning triple off Garrett Whitlock in the bottom half of the frame.
Following Sunday’s performance, Devers now finds himself batting .276/.355/.521 with 34 doubles, a team-leading 33 home runs, 98 RBIs, and 87 runs scored, three stolen bases, 57 walks and 115 strikeouts in 142 games (614 plate appearances) for Boston this season. The 26-year-old is slashing a stout .350/.458/.650 in 16 games since the calendar flipped from August to September.
Among qualified big-league third basemen coming into play on Monday, Devers ranks third in homers, second in RBIs, fifth in runs scored, fourth in batting average, third in on-base percentage, second in slugging percentage, first in OPS (.876), third in isolated power (.245), second in hard-hit rate (54.5 percent), first in wOBA (.369), and second in wRC+ (130), per FanGraphs.
With 172 homers for his major-league career, Devers is currently tied with Hall of Famer Jim Rice for the most home runs by a Red Sox player before turning 27 years old. He also became the 22nd player in franchise history to record 400 career extra-base hits over the weekend and is the first to do so before his 27th birthday.
Devers, who turns 27 late next month, is the third Red Sox player to earn American League Player of the Week honors this season, joining Masataka Yoshida (May 6) and two-time winner Adam Duvall (April 1, August 26). In the National League, Devers’ fellow countryman — Padres outfielder Juan Soto — took home the award.
With hits in seven of his last nine games, Devers will look to keep things rolling as the Red Sox open a three-game series against the Rangers at Globe Life Field on Monday night. Devers is batting second and starting at third base for Boston. First pitch is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. eastern time on NESN.
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