Devers guides Sox in tour of Dominican culture

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- For the Red Sox, this weekend’s journey to the Dominican Republic for a pair of exhibition games against the Rays has been an opportunity to live in Rafael Devers’ world.

It is a world in which they’ve never seen their teammate before. One in which Devers is proud to play the role of tour guide. And teach them the nuances of Dominican culture.

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“I’ve tried to show all my teammates the Dominican culture,” said Devers. “I went out with my teammates yesterday to dinner. I also took a few of my teammates to where I’m from, where I was born, where I was raised. It was nice for me to show my teammates where I actually come from. Now, they will have a knowledge of all these places where I’m from. I’m very happy about that. I’m very proud of that as well.”

Make no mistake about it: Devers is back home.

In fact, Saturday’s game, in which the Red Sox defeated the Rays, 4-0, marked the first game at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal for Devers since December 2016, when he was playing winter ball. At that point, he was about seven months from making his Major League debut, but he had yet to play at Double-A.

Eight years later, Devers is an established star, one of the best players from the Dominican and one of the most feared hitters in MLB.

During pregame introductions, as both teams lined up along the baselines, Devers received by far the loudest ovation.

“He’s loving it,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “He’s showing his teammates what the Dominican Republic is. He wants to show his people this is a beautiful country.”

Once the season starts, Devers will have a steely-eyed focus to help the Red Sox perform better than everyone outside their clubhouse expects them to.

But this weekend is about so much more. For Devers, who went 0-for-2 with a walk in three plate appearances, the opportunity to play in front of his grandfather again was priceless.

“I’m going to have my family here, my grandfather,” Devers said. “I’m excited to have people here that haven’t seen me play in a big-league uniform.”

Then again, playing is just a small fraction of the fun for Devers, who started at third base Saturday night and will DH on Sunday.

The best part of Raffy’s weekend?

“For me, it’s seeing my daughter, spending time with her in the morning, watching her play in the pool, having the opportunity to eat [Dominican] food with her. I think that’s been my highlight so far of this trip,” said Devers.

For David Ortiz -- the most dominant Dominican hitter to suit up for the Red Sox -- watching Devers get a chance to do something he never did is a treat.

“You know, I never had the opportunity to play in my country,” said Ortiz.

Pedro Martinez, sitting next to Big Papi at the podium moments after their joint first pitch, playfully chimed in, “Got you!”

“Yeah, you did,” said Ortiz.

In 2000, Martinez pitched an inning for the Red Sox against the Astros in an exhibition at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal.

Having accomplished just about everything in his professional career but playing at home, Ortiz was happy to live vicariously through Devers on this one. And through Enmanuel Valdez, another Dominican-born Sox player who went deep Saturday.

“I mean, we always dream about this as a Dominican,” Ortiz said. “We always dream about coming here with a Major League ballclub to perform in front of our family and our friends and fans that basically watched us grow up. Every American player, every Latin player dreams about that.”

Ortiz could see the dream come true just by observing the expression on the face of Devers.

“Just looking at Devers, he had the biggest smile on his face, and it’s because he knows he’s going to be performing here for the next couple of days,” said Ortiz. “He gave me a lot of happiness. He and [Brayan] Bello and the rest of the kids, because I have this type of feeling that I know they are going through. I never had that experience, but I can sense that.”

It is a feeling any ballplayer who makes his living far from home can relate to.

“That’s the key of this trip,” said Cora. “I lived it back home. One of the reasons I played winter ball was to play in front of my friends. Some of them had a chance to see me play in the big leagues, but some of them didn’t. To give them a chance to see me play, good or bad, I knew what it means to them, and that’s one of the reasons Raffy was excited to come here."