Rafael

Devers

Devers did smoke the one ball he put into play, but it turned into a 108-mph groundout. Devers has a 30.9 percent strikeout rate and a 6.6 percent walk rate right now. His career marks coming into the season were 22.0 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively.

The first double was a popup down the left field line that was originally ruled foul and overturned. The last hit was a single, but Devers still ended up on third on that one, as the Rockies just kept throwing the ball around. It’s Devers’ third career three-double game. The others both came in 2019, and one actually saw him collect four doubles. It was also his third career game with four runs scored. All of those have come since the start of last year.

Devers is not exactly known for his dazzling speed, but he was able to hit a run-scoring triple in the ninth and came around to score on a Matt Chapman single. He’s been excellent in the month of May with an .897 OPS coming into Friday’s contest, and it’s a friendly reminder than when Devers has it clicking, there aren’t many hitters better.

Devers was responsible for San Francisco’s lone runs of the contest when he lifted a towering double that one-hopped triples alley in right-center field at cavernous Oracle Park. He was also hit by a pitch, reaching base safely in two of his four plate appearances in the low-scoring affair. The 29-year-old slugger has alleviated most of the concerns fantasy managers had earlier this season, hitting .302/.351/.593 with five homers and 16 RBI since the start of May.

Devers’ grand slam came off Grant Taylor in the bottom of the fifth, giving San Francisco a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Devers is typically a slow starter, but one aspect of his profile that bears watching is his walk rate. It has collapsed following a career-high mark last season. The Giants have easily the lowest walk percentage in the league this season. It’s nitpicking given how strong his May numbers are, but there’s still work to do to get his season-long stats in a spot that fantasy managers expected on draft day.

Devers led off the second inning with a mammoth solo blast off Ryne Nelson. It was a 111.2 mph shot at 441 feet to center field. He later added a double in the fifth for his second extra-base hit. It’s been a much better month for Devers, who hit .207 with two homers through April. He’s now hitting .318 with four homers in May, raising his season line to .246/.292/.401 with six homers and 20 RBI across 202 plate appearances.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today had reported earlier in the week that the Giants would love to trade away some of their biggest contracts, including Devers, Chapman, Adames, and Jung Hoo Lee. Murray’s report seems to counter that and suggests that the Giants, who are just six games out of a playoff spot, believe there is “plenty of time between now and the deadline for them to climb out of this hole.” If the Giants are not able to do that, perhaps “further subtractions” would be on the table, but that doesn’t appear to be the case right now.

Devers homered on a splitter that Roki Sasaki left up on the zone. It was his third homer in five games, bringing his season total to five in 168 plate appearances. It’s the first time this year that he’s scored three runs. He’s totaled seven runs scored in his last five games after touching home plate just nine times in his first 36 games.

The Giants made one big move already, sending Patrick Bailey to the Guardians, and it seems like that could just be one step in a full-on rebuild. All of Jung Hoo Lee ($85 million left on his contract), shortstop Willy Adames ($161 million remaining), first baseman Rafael Devers ($226.5 million remaining), and Matt Chapman ($125 million remaining) are owed plenty of money going forward, so the Giants could have plenty of interesting levers to pull as we get closer to the trade deadline.

Devers’ homer was a one-out-of-30 ballparks, according to Statcast, traveling a projected 399 feet to dead center in San Francisco. That’s still nice hitting, but it likely would have produced a double elsewhere. Devers now owns an eight-game hitting streak, though this is his first multihit game since it started. He’s batting .348/.385/.696 since the calendar changed to May.