Ceddanne Rafaela followed up his three-hit performance in Friday night’s blowout win with another clutch moment on Saturday, delivering the decisive blow in the Red Sox’ 6-3 victory over the Rangers at Fenway Park.
With the score tied 2-2 in the seventh inning and the bases loaded, Rafaela fell behind in the count against Rangers left-hander Robby Ahlstrom before lining a curveball into left field for a go-ahead, two-run single.
In what has otherwise been a disappointing season for Boston, Rafaela has emerged as one of the lineup’s few consistent bright spots alongside Willson Contreras.
Before Rafaela’s late-game heroics, the Red Sox had to contend with 37-year-old Jacob deGrom. Entering with a 3.18 ERA and 84 strikeouts, the veteran right-hander looked every bit the ace early, retiring five of the first six batters he faced and cruising through the opening two innings.
deGrom was handed an early 1-0 lead in the third inning after Rangers shortstop Nicky Lopez singled and came around to score on Wyatt Langford’s softly hit single up the middle. The play was aided by a throwing error from Rafaela, whose attempt to catch Langford advancing sailed into the infield.
The lead didn’t last long.
Boston answered immediately in the bottom of the third, collecting four singles against deGrom. Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Marcelo Mayer opened the inning with back-to-back hits before Mickey Gasper drove in Kiner-Falefa with an RBI single to tie the game. Two batters later, Wilyer Abreu lined a two-out RBI single to give the Red Sox a 2-1 advantage.
Abreu has an RBI in back-to-back games for the sixth time this season.
Texas pulled even in the fourth against Ranger Suarez, who allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases with nobody out. After recording a strikeout, Suarez surrendered a sacrifice fly to Michael Helman that tied the game at 2-2. He escaped further damage by inducing a groundout to end the inning, limiting the Rangers to just one run.
The Rangers threatened again in the fifth, opening the inning with consecutive singles. Suarez responded by getting a ground ball that resulted in Lopez being caught in a rundown and tagged out at the plate. Although he walked Josh Jung to reload the bases with one out, the left-hander slammed the door by striking out Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger looking to preserve the tie.
