Ceddanne Rafaela homers again as scorching hot Red Sox sweep Rays winning their 10th straight game

At the end of May, Boston went 5-5 during a homestand at Fenway Park. Alex Cora had no answers for his team’s play. The Red Sox struggled to get any momentum, and it was costing his club games.

“You guys know how I feel about 10-game win streaks—we haven’t done that in a while here," Cora said on May 25th. “When you get on a hot streak, you want to get eight games over .500, 10 games over .500. So we’re still playing where we’re at, an average team. And hopefully when we get our streak, we can get to eight games over .500 and then take off.”

Cora finally has his 10-game winning streak as the Red Sox defeated the Rays 4-1 on Sunday afternoon, completing a four-game sweep of Tampa Bay, and will go into the All-Star break in the Wild Card hunt, owning the second spot in the standings.

Boston’s 10-game winning streak is its longest since July 2018. They haven’t lost a game since heading to the nation’s capital to play the Nationals on the Fourth of July.

Ceddanne Rafaela continues to dominate at the plate, launching his 14th home run of the season to put the Red Sox ahead 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Boston launched an attack on Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot, scoring four runs, three of which were earned over the first six innings. Things began to sway in the Sox’ favor in the sixth when Roman Anthony lined up a double high off the Green Monster. 

Trevor Story delivered a go-ahead single, lining the ball off the Monster, scoring the rookie, Anthony. Rafaela followed with his two-run blast, opening up a three-run lead.

Anthony's double extended his hitting streak to nine games, and he became the youngest Red Sox player to put together a streak that long since Tony Conigliaro did it in 1965.

Over his last 60 games dating back to May 7, Rafaela is now batting .301 with 12 homers, 33 RBI and a .906 OPS.

Brayan Bello allowed one run off six hits with no walks over 6 1/3 innings. It was the seventh start in a row that he went at least six frames, and in the process lowered his ERA down to 3.14. He threw 105 pitches, 71 of them for strikes. It was the first time Bello issued zero free passes since May 17, 2024, a span of 38 games.

The loud crowd at Fenway Park gave Bello a standing ovation as he departed from the game.

Justin Wilson recorded the final two outs of the seventh inning. 

The Rays had a chance to put runs on the board in the eighth inning after getting a pair of hits off Garrett Whitlock. With two runners on base and one out, Whitlock forced Josh Lowe to ground out and then struck out All-Star Junior Caminero swinging to escape the jam.

Aroldis Chapman locked down his 17th save of the season pitching a perfect ninth inning. He will head to Atlanta and represent the Red Sox in the All-Star Game. 

Rafaela delivered with his bat but also made a heads-up play, preventing the Rays from gaining momentum earlier in the game and scoring. He just missed making an impressive diving catch in center field; unable to rob Yandy Díaz of a base hit, he quickly recovered and fired the ball to third base to get Jonathan Aranda trying to go first-to-third. 

Alex Bregman tagged out the runner, ending the inning, before the speedy Chandler Simpson was able to cross the plate.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” Cora said to reporters after the game.

The Red Sox have clinched the season series with the Rays, which will be crucial down the stretch for potential playoff positioning.

Heading into the All-Star break, the Red Sox are 53-45 after a chaotic first half of the season where they looked inconsistent and mediocre at times.

The Sox will head into the All-Star break and get four days off before starting a series with the Cubs next weekend at Wrigley Field. The Red Sox will send righty Lucas Giolito (6-1, 3.36 ERA) to the mound, and he’ll be opposed by Cubs righty Colin Rea (7-3, 3.91 ERA).

It won’t be an easy stretch following the break; the Red Sox will face the Cubs for three, the Phillies for three, and then welcome the Dodgers to Fenway Park at the end of the month.