BALTIMORE — After finding himself in the middle of almost every significant play of the game, Ceddanne Rafaela concluded the night wearing a big smile in the middle of a jubilant Boston Red Sox clubhouse.
He had, after all, just hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning to lift the surging Red Sox to a 3-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the game, Rafaela failed to hold onto a blooper that provided Baltimore with its first run. Then, apparent miscommunication between Rafaela and fellow outfielder Jarren Duran enabled the Orioles to take a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning.
With Boston three outs from defeat, however, it all turned around for Rafaela.
Duran led off with a single and Rafaela, who entered the game with a .188 batting average since the All-Star break, followed with a towering fly on a 1-1 changeup off Keegan Akin that cleared the wall in left-center.
It was Rafaela’s third go-ahead home run in the ninth inning or later this season, tying William Contreras, Nick Kurtz, and Shohei Ohtani for the most in MLB.
“Baseball is a beautiful game, right?” Rafaela said. “In baseball, you’ve got to keep going. If you don’t keep going and try to help your team, you’re not going to have this outcome.”
The Red Sox, who remain three games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays and a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees in the American League East, have won six of seven games on their road trip.
Rafaela was the centerpiece of Boston’s latest victory. He nearly snagged that sinking liner in the second inning, but the ball popped out of the diving center fielder’s glove for a double.
In the seventh, Duran came from left field to chase a ball and converged with Rafaela. They looked at each other as the ball hit the base of the wall for an RBI double.
“It was a miscommunication,” Rafaela said. “I thought he had it, and he thought I had it. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen again.”
Fortunately for the Red Sox, that same duo teamed to produce the winning runs.
“I was just trying to get on base right there, like JD did,” said Rafaela, who had two hits. “We did a good job to let it go and fight for the win.”
Said Boston starter Brayan Bello: “He was going through a hard time, but every time the team needs him he comes through. Tonight was an example of that.”
Rafaela said he was just trying to make contact on the pitch from Akin, but he acknowledged that he was thinking about the long ball.
“To be honest with you, I kind of felt it,” Rafaela said. “I was really confident right there.”
Greg Weissert (6-4) got the win for Boston, while Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth for his 26th save. It also was the 14th consecutive hitless appearance for Chapman, which ties Scott Aldred (1998-99) for the second-longest such streak in American League history, according to ESPN Research. Sergio Santos holds the record with 15 straight hitless appearances in 2013.
Roman Anthony got Boston started with a shot to center off Dietrich Enns on the fifth pitch of the game. Two nights earlier, the rookie became the youngest player in Red Sox history (21 years, 104 days) to hit a leadoff homer.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
