It feels like much longer than a week ago that the Giants shook the baseball world to its core by acquiring superstar infielder/DH Rafael Devers in a blockbuster deal with the Boston Red Sox. Since then, the Giants have gone a modest 3-3. But the results on the field have almost taken a back seat to the storyline of Devers’ addition and the national attention it has garnered the Giants. Devers and his new team are certainly looking forward to hitting stride and breaking out of the honeymoon phase as the calendar creeps toward July.
In the meantime, the firsts will continue to come. On Saturday, it was his first home run in a Giants uniform. The fact that it came against his old team was icing on the cake. After a forgettable 0-5 on Friday in the series opener in which the Giants lost 7-5, he bounced back with a pivotal two run shot in San Francisco’s 3-2 Saturday victory. Here’s how it sounded on KNBR.
The night before, Devers drove a ball to deep left center that kept carrying all the way to the wall before it was caught with a half leap. It was a suspenseful flight, but it never truly looked like it was leaving the yard. Devers explained after the game Saturday that he was sure Friday night’s deep fly ball wasn’t going out, but he was just as sure on Saturday that his opposite field blast was gone.
It was another eventful Saturday ninth inning for Camilo Doval, one of two Giants embattled closers in 2025. The Giants entered the ninth up 3-0 after a dominant start from Landen Roupp. Doval put himself in trouble immediately, as he’s been prone to do whenever he’s not quite right. The Red Sox pieced together a rally that eventually put the tying run on third before a routine 6-3 groundout was buttoned up by Willy Adames to close the game.
Roupp’s previous start came in Los Angeles, where he suffered by far his worst start of the season in a blowout loss on June 14. He’s a methodical worker, but even Roupp knows that sometimes, it’s just better to flush it. There wasn’t much good that could come of dwelling on that start. So, he didn’t.
Mike Krukow joined Murph & Markus on Monday morning for his weekly spot talking all things Giants. He weighed in on what he’s seen from Devers in his first week in orange and black.
Check out the full Mike Krukow interview below!