First-year teammates Rafael Devers and Justin Verlander will get an opportunity to pool their improved form of late when the San Francisco Giants go for a series win over the visiting Washington Nationals on Sunday afternoon.
Devers has homered in each of the last two games, but the Giants could do no more than split the pair against the last-place Nationals, falling 4-2 on Saturday afternoon after taking the series opener 5-0.
Devers’ blasts, his 21st and 22nd of the season, gave him home runs on consecutive days for the third time this season, the previous two having come as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He’s had three-game-homer stretches (or more) seven times in his career, all with the Red Sox, including a six-gamer last May.
The left-handed slugger also singled and walked twice in Saturday’s loss. Coupled with his homer and a walk on Friday, he’s reached base on six of eight plate appearances in the series.
Devers served as the DH on Saturday after playing first base in the series opener. Giants manager Bob Melvin noted afterward he’s not concerned about whether Devers is in the field as long as he’s hitting as he has since Aug. 1, a stretch in which he’s gone 9-for-28 (.321).
“When he’s comfortable at the plate, you see what he does right now,” Melvin told reporters after Saturday’s game. “He (was) DH’ing (on Saturday); he’s gone back and forth. He is more comfortable at first base. I just think it’s him being Devers at this point.”
Devers will get an opportunity to do something Sunday that he’s rarely done as a Giant — help Verlander get a win.
The two have played on the same day nine times since Devers joined the Giants in June. The club has gone 1-8 in those games, with Devers batting 7-for-33 (.212) with 12 strikeouts.
Devers had two homers in those games — both coming in Verlander’s only win of the season, a 9-3 triumph at Atlanta on July 23.
Verlander (1-8, 4.29 ERA) has pitched well in two starts since then, limiting the Pittsburgh Pirates to one earned run over 10 innings in back-to-back meetings – but has no wins to show for the efforts. Devers went 0-for-8 with three strikeouts.
A Virginia native who stayed in-state for his college career at Old Dominion, Verlander has won all five of his career starts against the Nationals, allowing just seven runs in 30 1/3 innings (2.08 ERA).
He is scheduled to be matched Sunday against left-hander MacKenzie Gore (4-12, 4.29), who was 6 years old when the 263-game winner made his big league debut in July 2005.
Gore has gone 3-2 with a 4.97 ERA in five career starts against the Giants. He was a hard-luck loser when he opposed Landen Roupp at home on May 23 after limiting the visitors to one run and two hits in six innings of a 4-0 Giants win.
In a lefty-on-lefty matchup, Gore has dominated his lifetime head-to-heads with Devers, retiring him all six times, including two strikeouts.
A 12-game loser despite allowing two or fewer earned runs in 15 of his 23 starts this season, Gore said he looks forward to bouncing back from one of the worst outings of his career, when he was bombed for eight runs in three innings at home by the Athletics on Tuesday in a 16-7 loss to the A’s.
“This is embarrassing,” he told reporters after the game. “Something needs to change. They were on everything; we’ve got to figure out why. There’s going to be some type of adjustment.”