BOSTON (AP) — Rafael Devers has settled into his role as the designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox and said recently that he wasn’t changing his mind about moving to first base.
If he keeps going like this, why bother trying.
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Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers celebrate in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sunday, May 11, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, center, celebrates with teammates as he scores after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, right, reacts as he starts to run the bases after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, left, celebrates as he runs the bases toward home after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Devers homered leading off the bottom of the ninth inning against Pierce Johnson, sending the Red Sox to a 7-6 comeback win over the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night that snapped their four-game losing streak.
“I feel very comfortable right now,” he said through a team interpreter. “I have my routine and go out there every day and do my routine to get ready and I feel very comfortable as a DH.”
After Devers shared his feelings about not wanting to play first, Red Sox owner John Henry flew to share his opinions with the disgruntled slugger.
Henry, team president Sam Kennedy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow flew to Kansas City to meet with Devers and manager Alex Cora on May 9.
But after a historically slow start to the season, Devers has been hot at the plate. He’s reached base 19 of his past 20 games, hitting .397 with six homers and 20 RBIs in that stretch.
“He’s been swinging the bat well, taking his walks,” Alex said. “That first weekend, whoever has an explanation of what happened there, give me a call and explain it because it was hard to see it and then he just changed. He’s been really good.”
On Saturday, he hit his first career walk-off.
“Obviously, very excited because of the type of game. For us to be able to come back and win this type of game means a lot,” Devers said. “And also to get it going with the team to get everybody excited.”
The Red Sox had tried to talk Devers into moving to first after regular first baseman Triston Casas was lost for the season following surgery on his left knee.
“He has his routine down,” Cora said. “He cares about us, he cares about the team and he wants to win. Right now, like I said before, he’s our DH and he’s done an outstanding job. … He’s probably the best DH in the American League right now.”
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Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers celebrate in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Sunday, May 11, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, center, celebrates with teammates as he scores after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, right, reacts as he starts to run the bases after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Boston Red Sox's Rafael Devers, left, celebrates as he runs the bases toward home after hitting a walkoff home run in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — In the crucial, chaotic minutes after a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, began firing inside an elementary school, a police officer now accused of failing to protect the children stood by without making a move to stop the carnage, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
School officer Adrian Gonzales arrived at the scene of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. But he did not try to distract or engage him, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements of a criminal trial.
The officer only went inside Robb Elementary “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.
Defense attorneys disputed the accusations that Gonzales — one of two officers charged in the aftermath of the 2022 attack — did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” said defense attorney Nico LaHood. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
Prosecutors focused sharply on Gonzales’ steps in the minutes after the shooting began and as the first officers arrived. They did not address the hundreds of other local, state and federal officers who arrived and waited more than an hour to confront the gunman, who was eventually killed by a tactical team of officers.
Gonzales, who is no longer a Uvalde schools officer, has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.
It’s rare for an officer to be criminally charged with not doing more to save lives.
“He could have stopped him, but he didn’t want to be the target,” said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed.
Duran, who showed up early at the courthouse to watch the beginning of the trial, said authorities stood by while her sister “died protecting children.”
Defense attorneys described an officer who tried to assess where the gunman was while thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.
Gonzales was among the first group to go into the building before they took fire from Salvador Ramos, the officer’s attorneys said.
“This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act,” defense attorney Jason Goss said.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said.
“When a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,” Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.
Stephanie Hale, who was teaching at Robb Elementary the day of the attack, struggled through tears to describe running with students from the playground to the school building and hiding in a classroom.
Hale said once inside, she and other teachers grabbed scissors to defend themselves if the gunman came in the room. Hale described students hiding in the dark as she crawled on her belly to reach the ones who were struggling to stay calm.
“We got together and came up with a plan: To do what we had to do to defend” the children, Hale said.
She discovered later some of the children had grabbed safety scissors to mimic the teachers.
The trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, is sure to be traumatic for the victims’ families. Some are expected to testify, along with law enforcement agents, emergency dispatchers and school employees.
As testimony began, tissue boxes were brought to the families. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first 911 calls, but as they heard the voices become more frantic, the cries in the courtroom were inescapable.
The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after Gonzales’ attorneys argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway.
An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until they breached the classroom and killed Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the shooting.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
The officer’s attorneys told jurors that there was plenty of blame to go around — from the lack of security at the school to police policy — and that prosecutors will try to play on their emotions by showing photos from the scene.
“What the prosecution wants you to do is get mad at Adrian. They are going to try to play on your emotions,” Goss said.
“The monster who hurt these children is dead,” he said. “He did not get this justice.”
Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted by a jury after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales looks back while seated in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, right, talks with an officer as he arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Family member Jesse Rizo, center, talks to the media before the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
A man enters the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - Crosses with the names of shooting victims are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
People enter the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A line forms at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - This booking image provided by the Uvalde County, Texas, Sheriff's Office shows Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
FILE - Flowers are placed around a welcome sign outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, to honor the victims killed in a shooting at the school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
