Concerns that the team’s home run stroke wouldn’t survive the off-day, or make the trip across the plains, were alleviated early in St. Louis.

Two batters into Friday night’s contest against the Cardinals, starter Michael McGreevy lobbed a curveball to Rafael Devers that the slugger appeared to be expecting. The pitch wasn’t a hanger either. Breaking ball, down. Devers followed it in like a predator patiently following its prey. He closed his wide-open stance, and as the baseball dropped, brought his front foot down…and the jaws snapped shut.

The energy generated by the bat head spun his entire upper body. The power of the swing uprooted his lower half, he stumbled backwards across the plate as the baseball took off for straightaway center. 110 MPH off the barrel, 416 feet from home— the

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