The lone priority of the Red Sox this week after clinching a postseason berth over the weekend is getting healthy as the team prepares for the Wild Card Round next week.
The team took a major step in that direction on Wednesday night, when Ceddanne Rafaela returned to the starting lineup after missing the last 17 games with a right quad strain. Rafaela looked like his All-Star self immediately, making a diving catch on the first batter of the game, recording all three putouts in the first inning, and then ripping a 106.5 mph single to left field to lead off the bottom of the second.
Rafaela’s return, though, didn’t last much longer, as he grimaced out of the box and grabbed at his right hamstring after rounding first on his single. Though he didn’t leave the game immediately, he was removed before the third inning due to what the team labeled right hamstring tightness.
Red Sox manager Chad Tracy and head athletic trainer Brandon Henry met with Rafaela, who convinced them that he could stay in the game. Rafaela then ran the bases, making it to second base on an error by Jose Ramirez, before taking the field for the top of the third.
During warmups between innings, though, Tracy pulled Rafaela from the game, and the manager appeared to be offering some direct words to his All-Star center fielder.
“Just saw him continuing to flex it, that’s all,” Tracy told ESPN’s Buster Olney later in the game. “He seems to have felt some cramping in the back [of the leg] there, and then was able to run. And then we watched him go back out there. He kept flexing it, so we felt like let’s go ahead and make the change.”
The 26-year-old Rafaela is hitting .284 with a .763 OPS this season and is line to win a second consecutive Gold Glove in center field. He figures to be a central part of the Red Sox lineup for the postseason, but he now has less than a week to heal from his latest lower-body injury before Game 1 next Tuesday.
