Lineup construction is a funny thing.
Alex Cora looked at the numbers and in the offseason, decided it would be best to flip-flop Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi in the Red Sox batting order. After an MVP season as the Red Sox' leadoff hitter, Betts was dropped to second, with Benintendi assuming leadoff duties.
The reasoning was sound enough: despite arguably the best season for a Red Sox hitter since Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in 1967, Betts didn't get many RBI opportunities (80) in 2018, often coming to the plate with the bases empty. In fact, thanks to leading off games and the struggles of the bottom third of the Sox' lineup for the first half of last season, fully 69 percent of his at-bats came with no runners on base.
That seemed a waste. So, Cora figured, putting Betts in the second spot would give him more RBI opportunities -- sound enough logic.
But the reality was something altogether different. Benintendi never took to the role of leadoff man, unsure whether to be passive or more aggressive. Cora gave up on the experiment on May 31, and returned the players to their 2018 roles.
But simply hitting the re-set button didn't produce the desired results, either. More than three weeks later, with Benintendi slumping and needing some time off, Cora, on a whim, tried Rafael Devers in the No. 2 hole.
Eureka! Betts began to more closely resemble the offensive force he was in 2018 while Devers, already enjoying his best season, soon emerged as arguably the most dangerous hitter in a formidable lineup.
The numbers can't be denied. From the time Devers was installed in the second hole through Thursday night, the Red Sox lead the majors in the following categories: runs per game (7.17), AVG (.307), OBP (.365), SLG (.532), OPS (.897), doubles (tied, 65), and XBH (111).
In that same span, Devers himself knocked in 33 runs and hammered out 38 hits. Both lead the majors in that stretch.
“I was like, 'Let's try this one,' and he took off,” Cora said. “It seems like he was able to slow down the game in the batter’s box. He wasn’t swinging as hard. He just took off and it just makes sense to keep him there. It was instant offense.”
Devers, who posted three hits (two doubles) for the second straight day in Saturday's 9-5 victory over the Yankees, merely shrugs off the coincidence.
"To me,'' he said, "it doesn’t matter where I hit, whether it’s second, third, fourth or fifth. It’s just about getting good at-bats and trying to help the team win.”
Still, there can be no denying the relationship between the promotion of Devers and the elevation of Devers in the lineup.
"He just started mashing everything,'' said hitting coach Tim Hyers, "and when you're at the top of the order and you're getting on base for the guys behind you, it makes a big difference. Then, Mookie started to make his turnaround and I think that helps relax a lot of guys. Everybody was kind of pressing at the beginning (of the season), trying to do too much. But it did click. I don't have the answer for why it happened.
"But I can say that when you start a game off well and guys get on base -- and Raffy gave us not only hits, but power production -- hitting is contagious and it helped all the way around.''
While Betts surged in front of Devers, Xander Bogaerts, the most consistent hitter the Sox have had since the beginning of the season, continued to pound the ball. Together the two infielders on the left side of the Red Sox' infield have become the most dangerous back-to-back hitters in the game.
A year ago, the Red Sox' two best offensive weapons were Betts (leadoff) and J.D. Martinez (who alternated between No. 3 and cleanup). This year, it's the left/right combo of Devers and Bogaerts, right in a row, who are striking fear into opposing pitchers.
"That just wears out a pitcher,'' agreed Hyers. "Now, with Mookie on fire, too, you've got those three guys at the top just, they burn a lot of energy for a pitcher and they have to really grind to get through that and I think that just helps everybody behind them also.''
Not surprisingly, the revitalized Top 3 has completely changed the dynamic at the top of the lineup. The Red Sox are jumping on teams early (ask the Yankees, who gave up 10 first-inning runs to the Sox in the first two games of the current series). After managing just 33 runs in the first over the first 80 games, the Red Sox have since scored 42 first-inning runs in the last 25 -- roughly coinciding with the installation of Devers in the top third.
"When you hit a couple of balls hard in the first inning, or squeak out a couple of runs,'' noted Hyers, "it immediately changes the whole dynamic in the dugout. It's a mental thing. It's hard to explain, but it's just the way it is. I've been around this game a long time, and it's a battle to the end (of the game), but I think if you start out well, it helps the pitcher, it helps everything.''
For now, the Red Sox are merely enjoying the results of a somewhat random lineup. The first one, born in the offseason, didn't take. Nor did going back to what worked last year. But almost on a whim, moving Devers to the second spot was the spark that ignited the offense and may have well salvaged the season.
"It's a crazy game, isn't it?'' said a smiling Hyers. "Who would have thought that sticking Devers in that two-hole would produce this? But it's his comfort level. For right now, he's fired up and that's his spot right now and he's ready to get up there and hit and get it started.''
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- Send those teams to that October's World Series, where Chapman and the Cubs just barely edged out Miller and the Indians in seven games in an epic World Series.
- Obtained for Chapman current All-Star second baseman Gleyber Torres, while also getting outfielder Billy McKinney, whom he later packaged with Brandon Drury to Toronto last summer to get J.A. Happ.
- Obtained outfielder Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield. Frazier has been an up-and-down outfielder over the last two years while Sheffield was the centerpiece of the deal with Seattle last winter which netted James Paxton.
- Returned his team to the postseason the following year, reaching Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS before losing to the eventual World Series champion Houston Astros.
- Re-signed Chapman four months later to a five-year deal.
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