WASHINGTON — Rafael Devers has been motivated all season by the people who have doubted the 2021 Boston Red Sox.
Flash back to May 9 in Baltimore when the Red Sox improved to an MLB-best 22-13.
“We believe in each other. We believe in each other as a team. It’s you guys that don’t believe in us,” Devers said back then.
The slugger again mentioned the doubters three times during his postgame press conference Sunday after the Red Sox clinched the top AL Wild Card spot.
Boston rallied for a 7-5 comeback win over the Nationals here at Nationals Park. Devers homered twice, including belting a 447-foot two-run blast in the ninth to give Boston its first lead. Devers’ other homer went 432 feet.
“I know that nobody believed in us at the beginning of the season,” Devers said. “I just stayed positive throughout the whole situation. Obviously this is just our first celebration.”
Devers added later, “Nobody believed in us at the beginning of the season. Nobody believed in us halfway through the season.”
Sure, nobody picked Boston entering 2021 after a disastrous 2020 season. Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA Standings projected the Sox to win 82.7 games.
Fangraphs.com gave the Red Sox a 37.9% chance of making the postseason entering 2021.
Boston finished the regular season with a 92-70 record. It will host the Yankees in the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday at 8:08 p.m.
“Obviously Devers coming up huge with a crazy day,” Alex Verdugo said.
Verdugo stroked the game-tying two-run double in the seventh inning.
“I think in the beginning of the year everyone counted us out,” Verdugo said. “Even at the half (All-Star break), too, everybody was kind of saying, ‘No, it’s a fluke. They played well, whatever.’ ... But we like the guys in our clubhouse. We know what kind of offense we have. We know what kind of team we have. We know that we could put up a big spot. We can play. We can go real deep in this. We’ve just got to play our baseball and not get ahead of ourselves. Just take it one day at a time. I think everybody inside of our clubhouse, we’re all very confident with each other.”
Nathan Eovaldi will start the Wild Card Game for Boston.
“It’s going to be nuts. It’s going to be nuts,” Verdugo said. “I’ll tell you what, it’s better than being at the Yankees, for sure. So the fact that we get our home field advantage and all that, it’s what we asked for. Nobody said this was going to be easy. We’re just going to go out there and play hard and do what we do.”
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