Well, Rafael Devers, it turns out, is a bit of The Magician, because the way he waved his arms around so he wouldn’t be touched at third base on Monday was quite the trick worthy of the Javier Baez himself.
On a double to left field by Xander Bogaerts in the sixth inning, Devers tried to get to third, but Twins left fielder Trevor Larnach took the ball after it bounced off the Green Monster and quickly threw to the base. base. Everything indicated that Devers was going to be expected out: The ball reached the hands of Colombian Gio Urshela just before Devers began his spectacular slide. There was no way he was going to be out, right? Incorrect.
Perhaps this slip of the head did not have the grace of the acts of magic that we have seen the Puerto Rican Báez carry out, but what followed next was amazing. Urshela couldn’t tag Devers on a first down as the Boston slugger dribbled him past the bag in the effort. Urshela’s second attempt was also unsuccessful, as Devers was able to swing his arm back and then forward, slipping the glove, until he was safely on base.
The umpire, standing close to the bag, had a perfect angle to call Devers safe, but the Twins didn’t seem to believe what they had just seen (can anyone blame them?) and asked to review the play. The sentence was confirmed and the repetition allowed everyone to see in different shots the incredibleness of Devers’ trick.
Unfortunately for Boston, Devers risked too much on the next play, trying to score on an infield ground ball to first. He made one last attempt to avoid being tagged at the plate, but this time he was unsuccessful. You can’t win them all, Rafael!
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How did Devers avoid this out?!