Red Sox
“I’m glad there was no mic on me. I was screaming at the top of my lungs.”
Ceddanne Rafalea summed up his night succinctly on Wednesday.
“It’s a beautiful game, right,” Rafaela noted, per Tim Healey of The Boston Globe.
The Red Sox outfielder ran through the full gamut of emotions during Boston’s latest game in Baltimore — going from the primary culprit of a back-breaking loss to the hero in Boston’s eventual 3-2 win.
With Boston staring at a 2-1 deficit in the ninth inning, it was Rafaela who spurred Boston to a third-straight win — clubbing a two-run home run to give his team a lead it would not relinquish.
“Yeah, I’m glad there was no mic on me. I was screaming at the top of my lungs,” Jarren Duran, who was on first base when Rafaela left the yard, said postgame. “I mean, I’m not surprised. That guy’s been doing it all year. But I was just really satisfied, to be able to come back like that and take the lead.”
Rafaela is no stranger when it comes to rising to the occasion in crunch time.
As noted by MassLive’s Chris Smith, Wednesday’s big fly marked the third time this season that Rafaela has hit a go-ahead or game-winning homer this season in the ninth inning or later — tying him with the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz, Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, and Brewers’ William Contreras for the most home runs under those circumstances.
According to former Red Sox stats guru J.P. Long, Rafaela is the first Red Sox player…