That was the hope, but it wound up not to be.
Though Boston fell, 5-1, to the Diamondbacks on Saturday night at Chase Field to run the post-Anthony injury losing streak to three games, Rafaela’s snag was one to remember.
Even by the high standards he has set for himself as a defender, Rafaela took it to another level when he made a jaw-dropping snag over the wall in right-center to take a home run away from Carroll for the second out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
The 24-year-old tracked the fly ball with precision, timed his leap perfectly, used his left foot as a launching pad and swiped the ball before it went over the fence.
“You can’t really think,” said Rafaela. “It happened quickly. I just tried to catch it there.”
Initially, it looked like Rafaela might have been hurt on the play. But he was gyrating on the ground with excitement after the twisting catch.
“I was excited,” said Rafaela.
From the mound, Red Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito raised his arms with a look of amazement on his face and tipped his cap to Rafaela.
“It was far away from where I was standing. But I’m looking out there and he climbed the wall and I saw the glove fully extend over and usually when that happens, those are hard to bring back,” Giolito said. “What’s funny is I think me and the rest of the infield were far away from it so after when he was sitting down I thought he didn’t get it. He had his head down.
“I thought he was like, ‘Damn, just missed it.’ But in reality he was really pumped up and he was yelling out there. I didn’t notice that. And then when he pulled the ball out and threw it in I was like, ‘Oh my God. That was sick.'”
Per Statcast, Rafaela sprinted 27.1 feet per second, covering 117 feet on the play.
In his second full season, Rafaela has swiftly established himself as one of the elite center fielders in the game.
Coming into the game, Rafaela had 16 outs above average, second only to the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong (19) among Majors center fielders.
Due to his versatility and some injuries Boston has had the last two seasons, Rafaela has had to play the infield more than the team would prefer.
“He’s been incredible in center field and even second base when he has come in and played second base,” said Giolito. “He’s a premier outfielder. In my opinion, the best center fielder in the league and he has proven it by making extraordinary plays like that.”
With Wilyer Abreu (right calf strain, 10-day injured list) and Anthony out at the same time, Rafaela is sticking almost exclusively in center for now.
Though Rafaela expects to catch everything, he surprised himself a little on this one, and acknowledged it was “probably” the best catch of his young career.
However, the Red Sox couldn’t build any momentum after the tremendous play.
“I mean, the at-bats weren’t great today,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “So, great play. Amazing play. But it felt like offensively, we hit a lot of ground balls today. We hit some balls hard, too, especially towards the end of the game, but early on we didn’t do much.”
In a demonstration of the team’s misfortune of late, Alex Bregman launched what would have been his 17th homer of the season in the eighth, but Arizona left fielder Blaze Alexander came through with a robbery of his own.
“Sick play [by Rafaela],” said Alexander. “He robbed Corbin, but I’m just fortunate to make that catch. I think Corbin appreciated it a little bit.”
“It’s part of 162 [games],” said Cora. “Let’s not make it a bigger deal than a three-game losing streak. We show up tomorrow, put up good at-bats, try to win the game, and move on to Sacramento.”
