Devers fulfills promise to teammate with 825 feet of homers

CHICAGO -- Somewhere between the Dominican Republic and Chicago on Thursday, and many thousand feet above the ground, Rafael Devers told Brayan Bello he would hit two homers in his return from the All-Star break.

In support of his countryman and teammate, Devers made good on his prediction Friday night, walloping two of his team’s season-high six home runs in an 8-3 win for the Red Sox over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

It was Bello who told the media about the prediction made by his teammate. Devers confirmed it after it came to fruition.

Devers took the field feeling refreshed on Friday. Unlike the past two seasons, the star slugger had an All-Star break.

“Obviously, the All-Star Game is something that everybody wants to go to. It's a big honor,” said Devers. “But with those three, four days off, I was able to rest, recharge. But still, the All-Star Game is something that I would like to go to every year.”

What made Devers so confident he would produce the 16th multihomer game of his career and fourth this season?

“Yesterday, we're traveling together and I had a lot of days off,” said Devers. “And we're just on the plane and having fun laughing, and I kind of jokingly said that I would hit two homers today. It ended up happening.”

It was an auspicious reboot for a Boston team that has won six in a row and nine out of 10.

The left-handed-hitting Devers hammered homers in his first two at-bats as part of his 3-for-5 night. Backed by the power surge, Devers upped his homer total to 22, while pushing his RBI count to 72.

If Devers considered himself an All-Star snub, he wasn’t saying.

“My mindset ever since the beginning has always been that everything happens for a reason,” Devers said. “If I didn't get picked, I knew it was for a reason. And if I would have gotten picked, then I would have obviously been happy and honored to go. But I turned the page. I don’t think too much about it.”

The page was turned swiftly in the direction of Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks, who gave up both of the long balls to Devers.

On a humid night when the wind was whipping out, the Friendly Confines played even friendlier than normal.

Adam Duvall, Triston Casas, Yu Chang and Justin Turner joined in the home run fun for Boston, while the Cubs got two from Cody Bellinger.

But the most noteworthy swings came from Devers, who signaled on Friday that he’s ready to take off down the stretch. This has been building for a bit. In his past 28 games, Devers has a line of .295/.393/.600 with nine homers and 22 RBIs.

“That last week heading into the break, I definitely felt like I was in a good place,” said Devers. “And I'm just going to keep making the adjustments that I've been making, game by game. Just keep with that same rhythm.”

When Devers is in rhythm, the Red Sox are tough to stop.

And speaking of rhythm, Bello continued his, holding the Cubs to three runs on eight hits over six innings while walking none and striking out five. The emerging ace has gone six innings or more in his past seven starts, and he has a 2.22 ERA over his past six outings.

“He was good,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Bello. “In these conditions, in that ballpark, it’s tough. Anything that they hit in the air, it seemed like it was going out. He gave up the homers, but he gave us six. It’s a tough game. It's a tough game for starters coming out of the break and he set the tempo.”

Then there was Devers, who didn’t need much help from the elements or the ballpark dimensions. Per Statcast, his first long ball -- which easily cleared the fence in center -- left his bat at 104.9 mph and traveled a projected distance of 417 feet. The second soared toward the scoreboard in right at 104.2 mph and a projected distance of 408 feet. Both rockets by Devers would have been a homer in all 30 MLB parks.

“He’s hitting the ball hard and staying with his approach,” said Cora. “It’s just a matter of time. He’s a guy that, he's done it before. Obviously the last month, he's been walking a lot and he's been controlling the zone. And those were two really good swings tonight.”