Red Sox’ Willson Contreras, Giants’ Rafael Devers each hit 400-plus-foot home runs in 6-4 Boston win
Boston Red Sox
Contreras launched a 450-foot laser beam over the Green Monster to give the Sox a lead. Devers hit the second of back-to-back bombs for San Francisco.
Two of the Boston Red Sox’ best sluggers this decade each went deep at Fenway Park on Friday night.
One went in the Red Sox’ favor. The other for the visiting San Francisco Giants.
Boston’s 2026 home run leader, Willson Contreras, increased his career-high in the long ball department with a 450-foot missile out of Fenway in the bottom of the third inning. His three-run shot, which was hit a whopping 116 miles per hour off his bat, put the Red Sox ahead 3-1.
It was also the beginning of the end for Giants starting pitcher Logan Webb. Webb failed to get out of the inning, which marked the second-shortest start of his eight-season professional career.
Watch Contreras’s 26th homer of the year here:
Contreras, easily the leader of this Red Sox club, has heard boos on more than one occasion in recent home games for failing to run quickly to first base. He admitted he has to pick his spots as he’s managing various minor ailments.
The 34-year-old’s latest offensive showing surely quieted any of his remaining naysayers.
Interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters postgame Contreras clearly made excellent contact for his longest homer of the season.
“The swing by Willson was huge. That ball was hit well,” Tracy said. “It was hit a ton. He hit it really good.”
The other notable home run of the night came off the bat of none other than Rafael Devers. Devers is in town for the first time since being traded from the Red Sox to the Giants in last June’s stunning deal.
Devers’s first at-bat of the night was forgettable: a strikeout on four pitches.
His next appearance, though? A 412-foot, 107-MPH dinger to center field in the fourth frame. It was the second of back-to-back homers by San Francisco; Drew Gilbert launched a two-run shot of his own the previous AB.
Here’s Devers’s first homer at Fenway since his final game as a member of the Red Sox:
Devers received plenty of boos from Red Sox fans in his first at-bat, but he silenced those voices with his 26th HR of the year.
Tracy, who has long been well aware of Devers’s talent as the former manager of Boston’s Triple-A team, praised the slugger.
“He obviously hit it good,” Tracy said. “Raffy does what Raffy does. He hit it hard and he hit it out.”
After the game, Devers declined to speak with the media despite his big swing, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
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