BOSTON -- The Red Sox have been working with Ceddanne Rafaela on the art of pullside power, which makes sense, given the dimensions of Fenway Park.
When Rafaela went deep in the first two games of this three-game series against the Angels, both were towering shots that cleared the Green Monster in left. But for one fortuitous at-bat on Wednesday afternoon, Rafaela abandoned his new approach and hit paydirt. As his 94-mph hit drifted down the line in right, all that could be heard in the Boston dugout were players and coaches yelling, “Pesky!”
Pesky, of course, is in reference to the late, great Johnny Pesky. The foul pole in right field, a tricky angle that comes at the end of a sharp curl, is a mere 302 feet from home plate. Supposedly, a few of the six career homers Pesky hit at Fenway clanged off that pole or hooked safely around it. Maybe a handful of homers are hit there by MLB players each year.
Rafaela’s timing was perfect, with a 308-foot, two-run, walk-off homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth that snapped a tie and led his team to a badly-needed 11-9 victory to salvage the finale against the Angels.
The homer was the shortest by a Red Sox player at Fenway since Statcast started tracking them in 2015. Perhaps even more interestingly, it was the shortest walk-off homer by any MLB player in the Statcast era.
“I was like, ‘If it's fair, it's gone.’ So I was hoping it stayed fair,” Rafaela said. “I was really happy, because we grinded today. To win this game was huge for us. I was really happy.”
For the Red Sox, it was the very definition of a grind on a day they were trying to avoid being swept by the Angels after a pair of one-run defeats that brought their MLB-leading total in that category to a whopping 17.
Another close loss would have been hard to stomach for the 30-34 Red Sox, who will spend a Thursday off-day in New York and then play the American League East-leading Yankees in a three-game series that starts Friday.
It didn't look like it would be a happy flight to the Big Apple when starter Lucas Giolito was tagged for four runs in the top of the first. But Boston slugged right back for five in the bottom of the inning.
And even when Giolito derailed that momentum by giving two back in the second and getting knocked out of the game, the Red Sox kept coming.
“Yeah it was a grindy one,” said Sox leadoff man Jarren Duran, “It felt like we played two games out there. I'm really proud of this team for keeping at it. We could have easily gotten down on ourselves after taking a lead, giving it up. Taking the lead. Giving it up. But as a team, we came together and we pulled off a W.”
Down 7-5, Boston tied with two in the fourth. The Sox trailed 8-7 before tying it in the seventh.
Down 9-8, Rafael Devers had the definition of a seeing-eye, RBI single up the middle to tie it yet again in the bottom of the eighth.
Of late, coming through with men in scoring position had become too hard, most notably in Tuesday’s loss when manager Alex Cora’s team was 1-for-13 in that category while leaving 11 on base.
“You saw Raffy put the ball in play,” said Cora. “The ball went through. I'm not saying just give up your bat to weak contact, but the game will dictate what you do.”
Once Devers tied it, Cooper Criswell gave the Red Sox something they had failed to do three times earlier in the game -- have a shutdown inning.
Abraham Toro gave his Red Sox some ninth-inning life with a one-out single to center.
Up stepped Rafaela, who got just enough of an 86.9 mph changeup from Brock Burke to send everybody home.
“From where I was sitting, I mean, every time a ball goes that way we're screaming ‘Pesky’ from the dugout,” said Duran. “And usually it's way foul and we're just searching for something. But that time it actually worked. But from where I was sitting, I couldn't get a good glance of it. I was trying to fight people to get on the rail to see where it was going. But it just worked out for us.”