Yet for as much as players and fans and managers are conditioned not to assign undue import to the start of a season, there’s never been a five-game start as astounding – statistically, and circumstantially – as Rafael Devers’ grim 2025 beginning.
Monday afternoon, as the Baltimore Orioles rolled out their orange carpet and heralded their home opener, Devers and the new-look Boston Red Sox aimed to find the individual and collective rhythms that eluded them in losing three of their first four games at Texas.
Instead, nine innings later, the Red Sox were left with another defeat and Devers fell deeper into a hole of historic futility.
He struck out three more times on Monday, leaving him 0-for-19 on this young season, with 15 strikeouts. No batter in major league history has struck out as much in the first five games of their season than Devers, who surpassed the Chicago Cubs’ Ian Happ (14 strikeouts in his first five games of 2018) for most punchouts to start a season.
But at least Happ had a base hit to his name. Devers has outdone both him and former Houston Astros slugger Evan Gattis, who in 2017 set the previous high for strikeouts – 12 – in a five-game hitless stretch to start a season.
Devers’ downslide follows switch to DH, Bregman signing
Happ and Gattis certainly didn’t have a cloud of spring training controversy pass over their heads like Devers, who famously was shifted to designated hitter after the Red Sox’s February signing of Alex Bregman to take over third base.
It was a move that challenged Devers’ pride, since the Red Sox did not sign him to a $313.5 million contract extension to swing the bat four or five times a game. But Devers got on board by the end of spring training and assumed his customary No. 2 spot in Boston’s deeper, daunting lineup.
And then proceeded to swing and miss. A ton.
He punched out 12 times in four games against the Texas Rangers, part of an 0-for-16 start during which the Red Sox lost three of those games. Monday, in a ballpark he’s practically owned (13 homers, an .868 OPS in 55 career games), perhaps things might have been different.
Instead, Baltimore’s No. 5 starter, Cade Povich, walked him in the first inning and came back to strike him out in the second. And then caught him looking at a sinker on the outside corner in the fifth, before lefty reliever Keegan Akin got him to flail at a changeup in the seventh.
Devers did draw walks in the first and ninth, the latter plate appearance giving some hope to Red Sox manager Alex Cora, simply because Devers had an encouraging-looking foul ball, down the left field line, against Orioles closer Felix Bautista.
Yeah, it’s to the point they’re trying to find some daylight in a hopefully predictive foul ball.
The rhythm of baseball’s early-season schedule will allow Devers to think about his 0-for-19 a little more, with an off day Tuesday. Or not think. Or relax. Or get mad.
Something.
“I never change the way I hit. I’m still aggressive,” says Devers through a translator after the Orioles held on for an 8-5 victory, dropping Boston to 1-4. “Maybe I’m thinking too much on the plan, on what the pitcher might throw. Otherwise, I feel very good.”
Grinding for answers in the cage also isn’t Devers’ MO.
“I’m trying to not hit that much. I try to focus on the game,” he says. “I feel like when I hit too much, I tend to think even more, so I’d rather simplify things, pay attention to the game and do my hitting during the game.”
And, preferably, get some hits.
Red Sox manager downplays Devers’ slump
It’s certainly out of character: Devers is a career .278 hitter with a .344 OBP, and has hit between 27 and 38 homers the past five full seasons, inspiring the Red Sox to lock him into that extension.
He was slowed during spring training by pain in both his shoulders and unwittingly stole some headlines with the position flap. Cora and Devers insist neither are factors now.
“It’s not the shoulder. It’s not the DH thing,” says Cora. “He was very vocal about it a few days ago. The shoulder is fine. Now, it’s a matter of keep working hard and getting to the point of hitting the ball out in front. It’s a little behind.
“As you know, Raffy’s superpower is left center. He’s never been a pull hitter, except in certain venues. When he drives the ball to left center, that’s when you know he’s locked in.
“He’s going to keep playing. He’s going to hit second for us. He will hit, there’s no doubt about it. It’s just a matter of when.”
Of course, that’s what they said before leaving Texas. Typically, Devers is the most feared dude in the lineup when his name’s in there. Monday, there was a grim sense of inevitability to Devers’ plate appearances, as Orioles pitchers sped him up and slowed him down.
Devers the third baseman never opened a season like this. Devers the DH is still emerging, not that he feels extreme adjustments are in order.
“I feel comfortable with the routine I’m doing right now,” he says. “This is not a position I’ve done in the past so I need to get used to it. I feel good, I feel the team is playing good baseball.
“It’s just things aren’t going our way. I think those things are going to change, for sure.”
With just a few days scratched off the season calendar, Cora isn’t about to consider drastic measures, such as a lineup switch, a day off or a come-to-Alex session. Yet he’s open to anything that might get his slugger off the schneid.
“It’s like kids, right?” he says. “Sometimes you leave them alone so they can think about it, other times you call them into the office. Sometimes we eat, have a drink or something like that.
“There were some positives today.”
Yet still a .000 on the scoreboard.