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 took Yoshinobu Yamamoto deep twice, marking the second multi-homer game of his career. His first came against the Tigers on May 31, 2024.

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.

“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.

The rookie left-hander surrendered nine hits and two runs over six innings while walking two and striking out seven. Los Angeles hit several balls hard early, but Tolle repeatedly escaped trouble, holding the Dodgers to 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.

His biggest escape came in the second inning. After intentionally walking Shohei Ohtani to load the bases with one out, Tolle induced Andy Pages to ground out and escaped the jam. He grew stronger as the game progressed, striking out five hitters over his final three innings.

“It’s a good lineup, so to compete and battle through it, you’ve got to be proud of that,” Tolle said. “It’s a series win, it’s another one for us, we keep stepping in the right direction and starting off August right. It was a good win for the boys.”

Tolle lowered his ERA to 3.30, continuing what's become an outstanding rookie campaign.

“He was awesome,” Tracy said of Tolle. “The biggest thing was seeing him navigate through five hits in an inning, including a two-run home run, you hear that you’re thinking four or five runs and it’s two and he gets out of a bases loaded spot.”

Boston's bullpen handled the rest starting with Justin Slaten. The righty needed only eight pitches for a perfect seventh inning, Tyron Guerrero stranded a runner in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman struck out two in a scoreless ninth to secure the victory.

Chapman now has 27 saves on the season.

The Red Sox also received outstanding defense from Wilyer Abreu.

The Gold Glove right fielder threw out Ohtani attempting to advance to second in the first inning before cutting down Pages trying to stretch a single into a double in the fifth. Later in the game, Freddie Freeman thought better of testing Abreu's arm, waving off any attempt to take an extra base.

The game also marked the first professional matchup between Yamamoto and Masataka Yoshida, longtime teammates with the Orix Buffaloes and Japan's national team. Yamamoto won that battle, retiring Yoshida in all three plate appearances, including one strikeout.

As the game ended, news broke that the Dodgers had acquired reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Tigers in the deadline's biggest blockbuster. The trade quickly became the topic of conversation inside the Red Sox clubhouse after players returned from the field.

Rafaela was asked about the Skubal trade after the game. 

Boston will go for a three-game sweep Sunday night on NBC's Sunday Night Baseball. Rookie left-hander Jake Bennett (6-4, 2.74 ERA) is scheduled to face Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan (4-7, 4.95 ERA). Sheehan had been rumored to be part of the Skubal trade package before ultimately remaining with Los Angeles.