The 2026 Red Sox season will be made or broken over the next three weeks. So says team president Sam Kennedy, anyway, acknowledging that this floundering team doesn’t have much time to turn itself into buyers before the trade deadline. To that end, this afternoon’s game is exactly what the Red Sox needed.
Facing a tough pitcher but countering with a tough pitcher of their own, the pitching-and-defense Sox got just enough offense to pull out a win against Jacob deGrom and the Texas Rangers. The Sox scratched across two runs via four singles in the third while Ranger Suarez finessed his way through the Rangers lineup as usual. Then Ceddanne Rafaela said ‘Nuff Cedd in the seventh, knocking in two runners who, frankly, didn’t even deserve to be on base. This is probably the type of win that the Red Sox brass had in mind when they flew north from Fort Myers this Spring, the type of win there just hasn’t been enough of this year, particularly at Fenway, and the type of win they’ll need even more off for the rest of June if they’re going to salvage this season.
Ranger Suárez: Many people (hi, it’s me, one of the many) were critical of the Ranger Suárez signing this offseason. Not because he was a bad pitcher, but because he was a poor fit for a roster that had plenty of starting pitching depth but little offensive fire power. This season has mostly proven those skeptics right — the Sox have an exponentially greater need for a bat than an arm. But having said that, Ranger is a delight to watch on the mound, and I have a feeling he’s going to continue to be so for the length of his stay in Boston. I love having this dude on the team.
Ceddanne Rafaela: Speaking of a “delight to watch,” there is no better descriptor in the English language for the Red Sox centerfielder. Not only did he patrol center with his usual aplomb, but he also came through in the clutch in the seventh inning with the two-run knock that gave the Sox a lead they would not lose. Did Rangers pitcher Robby Ahlstrom help him out by inexplicably throwing a breaking ball in the zone after Ceddy chased two high fastballs? Yes, he did. But that’s not Ceddy’s fault.
The beautiful vagaries of baseball: The Red Sox are extremely fortunate that Rafaela even had two men on in the seventh to knock in, given that his plate appearance was preceded by two noncompetitive at-bats by Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer in that inning. But baseball is weird, and those two at-bats were surrounded by two successful swinging bunts by IKF and Carlos Narvaez. Baseball — like life — is just weird sometimes.
Caleb Durbin: But, yeah, that competitive seventh inning at-bat, which ended with Durbin looking at a fastball right down the pike, was pretty ugly. He went 0-4 on the day and was the only Red Sox starter to fail to collect a hit.
Tyron Guerrero: I’m not mad at Tyron— absolutely no one expected that he’d be called on to hold a lead in a high-leverage situation this year. But after Ceddy’s seventh inning knock, he did his best to give the game back to the Rangers, allowing a homer and hitting a batter before being lifted in the eighth.
Can I give it to Bill Lee for his performance-enhanced in-booth appearance?
The Actual Play of the Game
If not, then here’s ‘Nuff Cedd.
