Alex Cora Mystified By Immense Struggles From Red Sox Slugger

BOSTON -- All MLB hitters go through slumps, including Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers.

But the best of the best in the league find a way out of it to make sure the slumps aren't prolonged. That strangely enough has not been the recent case with Devers, though.

The left-handed slugger has had a brutal September, hitting a mere .183 with no homers and three RBIs this month. Devers seemed to hit rock bottom during Boston's trip to Tropicana Field this week to face the Tampa Bay Rays. He went 0-for-11 with an eye-popping eight strikeouts in the series.

Devers' struggles are apparent, but no solution to his problems has been found yet. Even Red Sox manager Alex Cora is mystified by what Devers has gone through at the plate.

"Honestly, I've never seen this," Cora said prior to Friday's game at the Minnesota Twins. "One thing for sure in the cage you see him -- and even (Thursday) there was one at-bat he kind of liked visualized his load. That tells me he knows what's going on and where he's at. There's certain swings that he takes and he swings and misses and he's surprised he did."

Injuries have plagued Devers all season, including ailments to his shoulders, but he's not using that as an excuse for his cold bat.

Devers looked like he would break out of his slump at points this month. He had a three-hit game Sept. 9 against the Baltimore Orioles, but couldn't sustain it. When he's at his best, he's spraying the ball to all fields, which has been non-existent for him during this stretch.

"I call it click. He's one click away from squaring one off," Cora said. "My biggest concern, whatever, is he hasn't drived the ball to left-center. Teams are attacking him a certain way. That's been going on for years. But I think him not hitting the ball to left-center tells me that mechanically there's something off. (Red Sox hitting coach) Pete (Fatse) and the group they're grinding, because it's been a while for him.

"He hasn't mentioned the shoulders in a while. He actually said, 'I'm not in a good spot right now,' but he's working at it. The key for me with him is left-center. And I haven't seen him drive the ball to that gap in a while."

Despite the struggles, Devers remained engaged. Just because his hasn't found an answer to his offensive woes yet, doesn't mean there isn't one right around the corner.

"He's encouraging everybody, 'We have to do this, we have to do this.' Game planning-wise he's helping," Cora said. "But like I said, it's hasn't (translated) on the field. It's not happening right now. Hopefully it happens today. He gets hot. When we were the best hitting team in the big leagues, he was a huge part of what we were doing."