Red Sox's Rafael Devers: Enters for hurting Nunez

Devers entered Thursday's game for an injured Eduardo Nunez (knee) and went 1-for-2 with a solo home run in a 4-3 win over the Blue Jays.

Devers was held out of the starting lineup for the third time in the last four games, but should be in the lineup for Friday's series opener against the Mets while Nunez is day-to-day heading into the weekend. The homer was Devers' 17th of the season, but just the third since July 1. It's been a learning season for the third baseman, who has run into a sophomore slump after a promising rookie campaign. A couple of injuries derailed him over the past month, but even before that, he battled inconsistency at the plate and leads all third basemen with 22 errors, with advanced defensive metrics to match (-3.8 UZR, -11 DRS). "He missed not a few steps, a lot of steps, as far as like player development," manager Alex Cora told Stephen Hewitt of the Boston Herald while noting Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi went through similar introductions to the majors. "They've been through situations like that. Get called up early in their careers, and all of a sudden they're not playing, or there's struggles. He has a few mentors down there. The good thing is about him, he listens. He listens to them."