FORT MYERS, Fla. >> Quinn Priester knows what’s at stake. With two vacant spots in the starting rotation due to injury, the right-hander could very well start the season on the Opening Day roster.

That fact likely made Saturday’s performance much tougher to swallow.

Priester endured his worst outing of the spring, allowing three runs on three walks and six hits over 2.2 innings in Boston’s eventual 7-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Priester threw 38 of his 62 pitches for strikes, and he especially had trouble putting batters away, allowing two first-inning hits with two strikes along with three doubles overall.

Following his outing, Priester made no attempt to hide his frustration.

“I need to be better. There’s no better way to say that,” Priester said. “The breaking balls saved me from giving up more but ultimately I need to be better with the fastball and I think a lot of those runs come off the board.”

Priester’s outing got off to a rocky start when he allowed a leadoff double, loaded the bases with no outs and then walked in a run. He managed to keep things from getting out of hand by generating a fielder’s choice and two strikeouts to end the inning, but he started the second by allowing back-to-back doubles, a single and an RBI groundout to give Atlanta a 3-0 lead.

He gave up another single and a walk with two outs in the third before his day was finished, and manager Alex Cora said afterwards that despite the walks, he felt that Priester did a good job throwing strikes. The problem was he couldn’t finish his at-bats.

“He was ahead but wasn’t able to put them away, too many pitches to hit with two strikes,” Cora said. “He got out of the inning in the first Alex (Bregman) makes a nice play and he got two strikeouts after that using the breaking ball, but it seems like they were hunting hard early in counts, the next inning they put the ball in play. He threw strikes, a bunch of them, but not quality pitches with two strikes.”

Prior to Saturday’s start Priester had been stringing together some quality performances, and his overall numbers in the Grapefruit League are still OK. Through four starts Priester has allowed five earned runs over 9.1 innings (4.82 ERA), though he’s now walked nearly as many batters (7) as he’s struck out (9) and is allowing opposing hitters to bat .359 against him.

Priester said that while he was not able to live up to his goal of making sure each start this spring is better than the last, he believes he can still bounce back and finish camp on a high note.

“I think right now emotions are high, frustration is high,” Priester said. “For me right now it’s let this emotion fuel this next work week, but ultimately once it calms down get a more realistic feel for what happened and get back after it tomorrow and start getting ready for the next one.”

Devers debuts

Rafael Devers made his long-awaited Grapefruit League debut and went 0 for 3 with one strikeout, with all of his at-bats coming against former teammate and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale.

Wilyer Abreu also got into his first game action and went 0 for 2, and Trevor Story returned to the lineup after missing his last two scheduled Grapefruit League games due to back tightness. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.

Triston Casas was the standout for Boston offensively, going 2 for 3 with his second home run of the spring, and Bregman went 1 for 3 with a solo shot, his third homer of camp.

Liam Hendriks enjoyed a bounce-back performance by throwing a scoreless fourth inning, Garrett Whitlock struck out four over two scoreless frames, Justin Slaten and Bryan Mata each allowed two runs in 0.2 innings, and Justin Wilson tossed a scoreless inning.

Sale pays tribute to Tiant

Chris Sale returned to JetBlue Park Saturday as a member of the Atlanta Braves, and upon his arrival the former Red Sox ace paid tribute to the late Luis Tiant by emulating his distinctive wind-up and delivery on the first pitch of the game.

“That was something I’d had this start circled for a little bit,” Sale told reporters afterwards, per audio from MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “Who Luis was to me and what he meant to me, not only in baseball but in life, he was one of my favorite people. Any time he came in the clubhouse he was like one of those larger than life characters and he was a special person. I felt like that was something cool for me to be able to do to tip my cap to him.”

Sale, who struck out nine Red Sox batters over six dominant innings, recounted how Tiant was always around and was always willing to offer a helping hand. He recounted one instance when he was struggling with his mechanics, but after a 20-minute conversation with the Red Sox legend, he was able to figure things out and turned in a much stronger performance his next time on the mound.

“He was in the clubhouse a lot and he would come in and he was a guy who could have some pretty good ball talk,” Sale said. “He could bust your chops with the best of them and on the flip side he’d kiss you on the forehead and tell you he loved you on his way out. He was just a special guy.”

Injury updates

Alex Cora said Masataka Yoshida is throwing up to 90 feet after previously being limited to 60. Yoshida is making progress but the expectation is he will not be ready to play the field by Opening Day.

Though he has been cleared to hit and has been serving as a DH in Grapefruit League games, Cora said he could start the season on the injured list, though that will depend on how the rest of the roster comes together.

Cora also said that Lucas Giolito (left hamstring strain) is playing catch and the club will reassess his situation on Monday or Tuesday. Brayan Bello (shoulder soreness) threw on Friday and is feeling good, and he is scheduled to throw two innings Monday on the back fields. Kutter Crawford (right knee soreness) is expected to throw bullpens on Tuesday and Friday and is beginning to ramp up after being heavily limited through the first month of camp.

Coming up next

The Red Sox play the Minnesota Twins for the fourth of six meetings on Sunday, with Garrett Crochet scheduled to take the hill for his penultimate start of the spring. He’ll face off against Minnesota’s Pablo Lopez, and Zack Kelly, Isaiah Campbell and Wyatt Mills are all scheduled to pitch as well.

Extra innings

Cora said he expects another round of roster cuts will be coming by Tuesday, and that the club will bring 30 players along to Mexico for the club’s preseason exhibition series in Monterrey. … Between big league games and minor league games on the back fields, Wilyer Abreu is expected to get 7-9 at bats per day over the next week to help him catch up after missing the first month of camp due to illness. … Connor Wong (illness) will be back in the lineup on Sunday and is expected to play the next two games.