Devers leaves yard twice for Sea Dogs

Sea Dogs hitting coach Lee May could tell Rafael Devers was less than pleased with his batting practice Wednesday. So the pair hit the cages for some swings against the machine.
The extra work paid off as the top Red Sox prospect collected two homers and three RBIs in Double-A Portland's 5-1 win over New Hampshire at Hadlock Field. It marked his second game of the season with two long balls.

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"He felt better. In the cage, you kind of grind through things and find your swing. [It's] more off of a feel than it is to overcomplicate it with techniques and getting too technical," the coach said. "He was just swinging the bat and squaring some balls up. It kind of washed the bad taste of a bad batting practice."
May said the pair has worked a lot on pitch selection this season since hurlers have become accustomed to Devers' hitting prowess. Immediately following the cage work, MLB.com's No. 12 overall prospect ripped a 2-2 offering to left field for a solo shot in the first inning.

"I would venture to say that the majority of his home runs are with two strikes," May said. "With two strikes, he's even more dangerous sometimes than early in the count when sometimes his swing gets a little big when he's trying to do too much. The more he settles in and matures and realizes that less is more and that he can just be patient and look for a pitch to hit, he's going to go a long way."
The coach said he doesn't get much into mechanics with Devers, focusing more approach and how pitchers attack him. Although patience has been preached, the 20-year-old knocked a first-pitch RBI single to center in the third for the Sea Dogs' second run of the game.

Then Devers ripped a solo shot to right in the fifth for his fifth career multi-homer game.
 "He's the type of player you would come to the ballpark just to see him play," May said. "He has very good hand-eye coordination. He sees the ball very well. The mechanics of his swing are really good. I think the home run to right field was a changeup and the base hit up the middle was also a changeup where he got his foot down and kept his hands back and was able to stay through the baseball."
At 16 homers already this season, Devers has blown by his previous career high of 11. His average took a dive of late when he hit .175 over his last 10 games, but the left-handed hitter continues to show off why his power is his highest-graded tool at 60 and has delivered five blasts in his last 11 games. On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic native was named an Eastern League All-Star.
"It was just a matter of settling down and realizing that sometimes you got to take your walk and wait for them to make their mistake," his hitting coach said. "He's settled into his swing. There were some adjustments and some things that he was working on mechanically that he figured out at the second half of last year that he's carried into this year."

Although many experienced players have great games after poor batting practices, May joked he'll probably go back to the cages with Devers before Thursday's game.
Red Sox No. 10 prospect Michael Chavis slugged his third homer with Portland and 20th of the season, tied for second in the Minors with Triple-A Lehigh Valley's Scott Kingery and one off the pace set by Triple-A Nashville's Renato Núñez.
"I had Michael last year. It's been really neat to watch him this year because prior to his [finger] injury that hampered him for the second half of last season, he started to turn a corner with his approach," May said. "The same thing that I'm seeing right now is what he was doing at the beginning of last year. So to see him progress and to see him mature and develop, it's been fun to watch."
Sea Dogs starter Kevin McAvoy (3-5) allowed a run on three hits and one walk with six strikeouts in six innings.