Devers, Bell honored for unreal months at plate

A pair of up-and-coming sluggers who announced themselves in major ways in recent weeks received big honors Monday.

• All-time Player of the Month winners

Major League Baseball selected Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers and Pirates first baseman Josh Bell as the American and National League Players of the Month for May. It’s Devers’ first league distinction of his young career, and Bell’s second following his NL Player of the Week Award from May 19.

Devers, 22, paced the AL with 40 hits last month while slashing .351/.380/.640 for Boston. The third baseman compiled a career-best 11-game hit streak from May 19-31, and he surged into a tie with Bell for the Major League lead with 93 hard-hit balls (those hit with exit velocities of 95-plus mph), per Statcast. Devers recorded an extra-base hit and scored a run in eight straight games from May 20-28 to tie a Red Sox record set by Dwight Evans in 1982, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Bell, 26, enjoyed one of the hottest months by any hitter in recent history. Pittsburgh’s budding star paced the Majors with 46 hits and 31 RBIs in May, while also tying for the big league lead with 12 homers and ranking within the top five in average (.390), on-base percentage (.442), slugging (.797) and OPS (1.238). Bell’s 94 total bases set a Pirates record for the club’s most in any calendar month of a season, and were the most produced by any hitter in the month of May since Hall of Famer Willie Mays recorded 102 in 1958. Bell also became the third player in NL history with at least 12 doubles and 12 homers in any month, joining Hall of Fame sluggers Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson -- who both achieved that feat in July 1961. Bell’s 24 extra-base hits tied another Hall of Famer, Paul Waner, for the Pirates’ franchise record for a calendar month.

Bell leads the Majors with 41 extra-base hits for the season, and his 94.6 mph average exit velocity on balls in play ranks second in baseball to the Rangers’ Joey Gallo.