Red Sox gut out another win, Ceddanne Rafaela homers twice to clinch eighth straight series victory

The Red Sox continue to find different ways to win.

One night after erupting for nine runs, Boston relied on dominant pitching, timely small ball and another huge performance from Ceddanne Rafaela to edge the Dodgers, 3-2, Saturday night at Dodger Stadium and clinch its eighth consecutive series victory.

The win improved Boston to 59-51 and continued one of the hottest stretches in franchise history. Since June 25, the Red Sox are 31-8, including 22 wins in their last 26 games. They have also won seven of their last eight and can complete a sweep of the defending World Series champions Sunday night.

“That’s obviously a good formula,” Chad Tracy said. “You want to do that all the time, it’s not going to happen all the time like that but to stack (series wins) this way and keep playing this way and keep the momentum that we’ve built and keep pushing, and we have to do that again. We have to come out with the mindset tomorrow of winning another game.”

Despite collecting just four hits, Boston manufactured enough offense against Yoshinobu Yamamoto, one of baseball's premier starters. 

Rafaela supplied nearly all of it early off the righty.

Fresh off Friday's go-ahead homer, the All-Star center fielder homered twice off Yamamoto, recording the second multi-homer game of his career.

He jumped on the first pitch of the game he saw, launching a 389-foot solo homer to left in the opening inning. 

After Teoscar Hernández gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead with a two-run homer in the second, Rafaela answered again in the third, hammering another splitter 402 feet to left to tie the game. It was his second multi-homer game of the season and his first since May 31, 2024, against Detroit. 

“He’s otherworldly right now, he’s been outstanding and he’s been really good all year,” Tracy said. “Obviously the home runs on this road trip showing up, and so many of them massive home runs, he’s been I think it’s safe to say probably the most key contributor to some of these wins, but he’s been outstanding.”

Rafaela now has 14 home runs this season, including six since the All-Star break, leaving him just two shy of matching last year's career high. He’s also 10-for-20 (.500) with three homers, five RBI, and three stolen bases through the first two games of the series in Los Angeles. 

“I think it’s been better for the team than for me, I think to get the win, that’s the most important thing,” Rafaela said of his recent surge. “But yeah, I feel good and it feels good to help the team."

Andruw Monasterio, who hit .338 with a 1.044 OPS during July, opened the eighth with a double before Jarren Duran dropped down a bunt single to put runners on the corners with nobody out.

Rather than bring the infield in, the Dodgers played back. Connor Wong hit a routine ground ball to shortstop Mookie Betts, who opted for the double play as Monasterio crossed the plate with what proved to be the game-winning run.

Payton Tolle overcame a rocky start to deliver another relatively decent outing.