Rafael Devers finally stepped back into the building where he became a star, and Fenway Park did not know quite how to feel about it. Just over a year after Boston shipped him to San Francisco in a deal nobody saw coming, Devers walked to the plate as an opponent for the first time, and the crowd's reaction was as split as the fanbase has been about the whole saga.
Devers steps in for his first Fenway at-bat as a visitor, with the crowd's reaction caught somewhere between boos and unease.
The split reaction made sense given how this all went down. Boston traded Devers to the Giants last June with more than $230 million left on his 10-year extension, after a messy positional standoff that started when the club asked him to move off third base to DH and later to first. He never played another game for the Red Sox after that fight boiled over, and plenty of fans never fully got over it either.
So when Devers dug in against Sonny Gray in the 4th inning, there was a real edge to the moment. He turned on a middle-middle fastball and sent it out to center, his 26th homer of the season and a shot that shut the building up fast.
Devers connects for the home run in his first game back at Fenway since the trade.
Boston still found a way to win the night, with Willson Contreras answering right back with a 3-run blast of his own as the Red Sox held on. But the game itself almost felt secondary to the reunion — Fenway gave Devers a tribute video before the game that drew an ovation, a strange contrast to the boos he heard just innings later in the box.
A year removed from the trade, the deal is still being picked apart on both coasts. Boston got back a package built around Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and prospects, while San Francisco absorbed the entire remaining contract to land a middle-of-the-order bat. Nights like this one are exactly why that argument isn't going away — Devers punishing his old team in the building that made him, in front of fans who still can't decide how they feel about him.