Ask anybody involved with the Red Sox in any way whom they believe to be the best center fielder in baseball, and they won’t hesitate. It’s Ceddanne Rafaela.
It was downright shocking, then, to see Rafaela make not one but two defensive gaffes on Wednesday night in Baltimore. Both were costly, too, as Rafaela dropped a ball while diving to allow a run to score in the bottom of the second and later didn’t take charge as a fly ball fell directly between him and left fielder Jarren Duran in the seventh, allowing another run to score.
Both plays should have resulted in third outs, but they instead accounted for the entirety of Baltimore’s offense on a night when Brayan Bello was dealing.
It was uncharacteristic, to say the least, and it put the Red Sox in position to lose a game they should have won.
Yet baseball has a funny way of creating opportunities for those who need them. And in the top of the ninth, Rafaela got his.
With Duran — who did bear some responsibility for the fallen fly ball — reaching base on a leadoff single, Rafaela stepped to the plate as the go-ahead run in the final frame. After taking the first two pitches from Keegan Akin, Rafaela got an off-speed pitch over the heart of the plate and unleashed on the offering.
The re-modified dimensions of Camden Yards helped out, and by the time the ball came down, Rafaela was casually jogging around first base, having known right off the bat that he had given his team a 3-2 lead.
The home run was Rafaela’s 15th of the season but his first since July 13, and only his second after hitting a walk-off home run against the Rays on July 11.
From there, Aroldis Chapman — in the midst of the best season of his life — shut down the Orioles in a 1-2-3 inning with three strikeouts to secure the victory.
For the Red Sox, the victory secured a second consecutive four-game series win, after they took the first three in the Bronx over the weekend. They’ll have the chance to make this one a four-game sweep on Thursday afternoon.
For Rafaela, it might have meant a little more. He had cost his team a shutout, but he managed to make sure the unexpected miscues didn’t hurt in the standings.
