Frank Fumai’s Devils continued to have the Beefers number, winning three of four on Friday morning, March 24, to improve to 7-1 while the Beefers slipped to 7-13 to settle into the cellar. All seven Devils wins have been against the Beefers.
Leading the way for the Devils was 3b Rafael Devers, who was 7-14 and homered in all four games, driving in a total eight runs.
The Beefs actually outhit the Devis (.241-.224) for the series, but it was primarily as a result of a 12-hit attack to win a bruising 11-inning extra-inning game in the series opener. The Devils pitching corps held the Beefers to only five runs while winning the final three games in a row. The Devils out-homered the Beefers 8-7 while the Beefs had 17 extra-base hits, nine of them in Game One.
Game 1 Beefers 10, Devils 9 (11 innings)
Beef LF Brandon Nimmo hit a walk-off HR off Joe Mantiply to lift the Beefers to a hard-fought 10-9 in the opener. The Beefs pounded out five HRs, including a grand-slam by Marcus Semien ,off Clayton Kershaw, who started for the Devils, and added four doubles in the game.
The Devils Kyle Schwarber, pinch-hitting in the eighth inning, greeted Evan Phillips with a grand slam to give the Horned Ones a 9-8 lead, but the Beefs got a pinch-hit homer of their own in the bottom of the ninth when C.J. Cron quieted the trumpets with a solo shot of Edwin Diaz, who was in to try and close with a save.
J.T. Realmuto was 3-4 with a HBP for the Devils.
Devils 9-7-1 L- Joe Mantiply 0-1. HR Rafael Devers #1, Schwarber #1 GS.
Beef 10-12-2 W- A.J. Minter 1-0. HR Semien #4 GS, Brandon Nimmo #1, Dansby Swanson #4, Bryan Reynolds #4, C.J. Crown #1, PH.
Game 2 Devils 10, Beefers 2
The Devils offense didn’t lose a step in Game Two, pounding out four homers for a 10-2 win, while the Beefers offense relapsed, leaving 10 men on base.
The Beefs took an early 2-1 lead off Tony Gonsolin on a two-run HR by Bo Bichette in the second, but the Devils scored two in the fourth and added two more in sixth, on a 2R HR by Pete Alonso to take a 5-1 lead. After that, the hits just kept coming for the Devis as they added five more runs in the final three frames, highlighted by Aaron Judge’s second HR of the season and a three-run blast by the red-hot Devers. Alonso was 3-4 for the Devils in the lopsided win.
Devils 10-12-0 W- Tony Gonsolin 1-0. HR Arozarena #1, Alonso #3, Aaron Judge #3, Rafael Devers #2.
Beef 2-8-1 L- Shane Bieber 0-3. HR Bo Bichette #2
Game 3 Devils 3, Beefers 1
The Devils posted two early runs on RBI singles by Starling Marte and an RBI single by Jose Altuve, building a 2-1 lead that held for the entire game, as Gerritt Cole won his second straight start over the Beefers, going six innings, allowing only five hits and one run. The combo of Hunter Harvey, Devin Williams, and Edwin Diaz, held the Beefs to only one hit in the final three innings.
Rafael Devers homered in the seventh, his third homer in three games in the series. Max Scherzer fanned 11 batters for the Beefs, but gave up all three Devils runs
Devils 3-6-0 W- Gerritt Cole 2-0. SV Edwin Diaz #2. HR Rafael Devers #3.
Beef 2-8-1 L- Max Scherzer 0-2.
Game 4 Devils 5, Beefers 2
Newcomer Tyler Anderson held the Beefs to seven hits and one run over seven innings while the Devils quickly gained the measure of Dylan Cease, pushing over five runs in the first five innings. Rafael Devils opened the scoring for the Devils with his fourth homer in four games in the second. Starling Marte doubled home two runs in the third and Aaron Judge singled home Altuve in the fifth.
The Beefers offense notched nine hits, but only two were for extra-base hits, scoring on a groundout in the fourth and an RBI single by Bo Bichette, who went 3-4, in the eighth. Liam Hendriks shut the Beefs down in the ninth to record his first save of the 2023 campaign.
Devils 5-8-1 W- Tyler Andeson 1-0. SV Liam Hendrik #1. HR Rafael Devers #4.
Beef 2-9-2 L- Max Scherzer 0-2.