McAdam: Red Sox have a problem at third base that needs fixing now

In the box score, the loss and the blown save both go to Ryan Brasier, who was tagged for a three-run, walk-off homer by Nicky Delmonico, giving the White Sox a stunning 6-4 win over the Red Sox.

That's as it should be. Brasier was entrusted with a one-lead to protect and couldn't hold it. That's the job of a closer, or whatever it is that the Red Sox insist on calling the guy called upon to get the final three outs.

But if they could give blown saves to position players, then Rafael Devers deserves one, too. It was an error by Devers with one out in the ninth that cracked the door open for the White Sox game-winning rally.



Brasier had struck out Yoan Moncada for the first out in the ninth and when Jose Rondon hit a topper to third, it seemed as if the Sox were going to be an out away from claiming their first four-game winning streak of the season.

Except Devers didn't field the ball cleanly. He charged the ball, and as he tried to scoop his glove up, the ball hopped out of the webbing, enabling Rondon to reach.

From there, it went downhill in a hurry. Yonder Alonso singled to left and after Delmonico hit a foul pop into the camera well beyond the Red Sox dugout, just eluding the reach of Mitch Moreland by a couple of feet, Delmonico made good on his second change, hammering a hanging slider just over the fence in right-center.

Again, Brasier didn't do his job and that's on him. But the whole inning pivoted on the misplay of a thoroughly routine ball hit to Devers, who committed his ninth error. That total is the second-highest in the game and puts Devers on pace for 46 errors this season.

"We've been talking about it and we've got to get better,'' said Alex Cora. "On that one, I've got to take a look at the video, but it seems like he was a little bit out of control and just missed it. I'll take a look at it and we'll talk about it tomorrow and go from there.''

The irony was, eight innings earlier, Devers had made a spectacular backhand stop on a ball hit down the third base line by Jose Abreu, then scrambled to his feet and zipped a perfect throw across the diamond to get the out at first. Then again, that's been the problem for much of Devers's career in the big leagues -- he'll make a highlight-reel play, then muff a perfectly ordinary ball hit directly at him.

It's what makes Devers so frustrating. When he doesn't have time to think about making a play, he's capable of supreme athleticism and instincts; it's the run-of-the-mill play, however, that gives him trouble.

Only three days ago, Cora noted the paradox, expressing the wish that Devers just make the ordinary plays while letting the difficult ones become hits. It's the lack of reliability that makes Devers such an adventure at the position.

It does the team little good for him to make the standout play in the first when he can't convert the simple play into the 26th out of the game.

It's hard to know where the Sox go from here. Devers has made significant strides at the plate this season, cutting way back on his strikeout totals -- last year, he fanned in almost a quarter of his plate appearances and this year, that numbers was down to just 16.4 percent heading into Thursday's game. At the same time, predictably, his on-base percentage has zoomed up to .388. He's yet to homer, but the at-bats have been far better, and with his raw power, the home runs will come in time.

But Devers is an honest-to-goodness liability in the infield. It would seem a drastic step to return him to the minors to work on his defense, but at the very least, the Red Sox have to think about giving him some down time to give him time to work on the side. (Ironically, Cora inserted Tzu-Wei Lin at second in the bottom of the ninth in place of the inexperienced Michael Chavis. Perhaps subbing out Devers late in games in which the Sox have the lead should be an option for the foreseeable future).

There aren't a lot of obvious alternatives within the system. Eduardo Nunez's best infield spot is third base, but he's still on a rehab assignment at Triple A. Brock Holt, who had a setback earlier this week with a shoulder impingement, won't return for a while, and even when he does, third is his shakiest spot in the infield. Lin, the best defender of the non-regulars, hasn't played a lot of third base.

The solution, in other words, isn't obvious. But this much is: the Red Sox can ill afford to have Devers cost them games the way he did Thursday night.