BALTIMORE -- Ceddanne Rafaela reprised his role of home run hero at the perfect time on Tuesday night, both for himself and his team. And in truth, Rafaela was long overdue to put one into the seats.
It just so happened that the center fielder snapped a 131 at-bat homerless streak just two innings after he and teammate Jarren Duran converged on a flyball, only to watch it fall between them as the Orioles took the lead.
The blooper reel play wound up a mere footnote as Rafaela clocked a go-ahead, two-run homer to left-center with none out in the ninth against Orioles lefty Keegan Akin, lifting the surging Red Sox to a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Orioles.
“To be honest with you, I kind of felt [a home run coming],” said Rafaela. “But I wasn't trying to do too much. I was really confident right there.”
It was Duran who set up Rafaela, leading off the ninth with a single to left. Redemption was the theme on a night Boston improved to 6-1 heading into Thursday afternoon’s finale of this eight-game, all American League East road trip through New York and Baltimore.
“It was a good one, especially with those two helping us win,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “There was some miscommunication. For Jarren to get the hit against the lefty, and then Ceddanne getting that pitch to hit and hitting it out of the ballpark -- that was cool to see.”
Duran screamed all kinds of things as he ran around the bases on his teammate’s first homer since July 13, the final game before the All-Star break.
“Yeah, I'm glad there was no mic on me,” said Duran. “I was screaming at the top of my lungs. I was just really satisfied to be able to come back like that and take the lead.”
The 74-60 Red Sox are hitting their stride just in time for the stretch run, which includes another 28 games. The Sox remain four games behind the Jays in the American League East and a half-game in front of the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot.
Part of being a playoff-caliber team is not getting deflated by in-game adversity.
“I think if we got stuck in that moment, we wouldn't be in this position right now,” said Rafaela, whose 15th homer tied a career high. “So I think we did a good job to let it go and then fight for the win.”
On that double by No. 9 hitter Dylan Carlson that fell in, Duran needed to cover 101 feet to make the play, which carried a catch probability of 95 percent per Statcast. Rafaela needed to go 118 feet and had a catch probability of 85 percent.
“I thought he had it. And he thought I had it,” said Rafaela. “One thing for sure, it won’t happen again. And the good thing is we got the win.”
Rafaela has been so outrageously good in center field that the only thing surprising at this point is when he doesn’t catch anything in his path. Duran admitted he fell into that trap.
“Yeah, I'm an idiot. I'm so used to him being an absolute vacuum out there when I heard his footsteps, I was like, 'Oh, [he will get it],'” said Duran. “It’s all on me. It should have been my ball all the way. I’m going to clean it up and be better. “
Duran and Rafaela cleaned this one up in short order with their bats.
While Rafaela was the headliner of the night, Cora gave a shoutout to bench coach Ramon Vázquez for a lineup change he suggested due to the Orioles going with a bullpen game that was started by lefty opener Dietrich Enns
“Ramon Vázquez actually won the game today,” said Cora. “On our way to the hotel yesterday, we were talking about the bullpen game and all that, and trying to split up the lefties and how we're going to do it, thinking that they were going to bring the righty in right away. He said, ‘let's hit Rafaela fifth’. And they end up having a lefty on the mound [in the ninth]. I tip my hat to [Ramon]. It’s a total team effort here. It's not about a one man show, whatever. Everybody contributes. And that was a fun one.”
Perhaps Rafaela most aptly described Boston’s latest stirring comeback.
“I think it's a beautiful game,” Rafaela said. “It’s baseball, and you’ve got to keep going. If you don't keep going and try to help your team, you’re not going to have these outcomes.”