SEATTLE — Rafael Devers, who the Red Sox scratched from their lineup Friday because of left shoulder soreness, provided an update after Boston’s 1-0 loss to the Mariners.
“I feel a little bit of soreness in my shoulder,” Devers said through translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “It’s early in the season so we’ve got to be smart about that. And it’s better to take one or two days than play through and then miss two or three weeks.”
Devers didn’t rule out playing Saturday.
“I think if I feel better, there’s a good chance I’ll play tomorrow,” he said.
Devers said the shoulder soreness began during spring training when taking swings against the pitching machine.
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“It started in Fort Myers,” Devers said. “I think it was getting worse and worse and yesterday I felt it a little bit. And today at batting practice I felt it a little bit more. And I wanted just to be smart and I stopped.”
He said “the pain wasn’t that big” in Fort Myers.
“I was able to handle it and play with it,” Devers said. “But playing with that pain, it was getting worse and worse and worse until the point that I decided to stop.”
Devers stroked two hits, including a 400-foot two-run home run to left-center field in the season opener Thursday, a 6-4 Boston win over Seattle. The slugger also crushed a 110 mph double.
“It happens with the hitting machine sometimes,” Devers said. “The hitting machine is not very consistent. So it sometimes throws hard. Sometimes it throws changeups. And I’m always gearing up to swing hard to the fastball. And there’s sometimes that I swing to those slow pitches, to the changeups, and it fools me a little bit and that’s where everything started.”
