Rolling Red Sox dreaming of October at ‘uncomfortable’ Fenway after Ceddanne Rafaela walk-off HR

BOSTON — Alex Cora has long said that Friday nights at Fenway Park are different. He has also long held the belief that the Red Sox, who have been a middling team for most of the last half-decade, have lost some of the inherent home-field advantage of playing at Fenway by simply puttering along.

A goal for Cora and his club entering 2025 was to regain that special Fenway feeling. A season-long eight-game winning streak capped off by a Ceddanne Rafaela walk-off home run should do.

“Tonight was real, and we appreciate that,” said Cora. “They got here early. I think they did the wave once, which was good, and it was very loud. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish. It was on us to make this place uncomfortable. Tonight was uncomfortable. You could feel it.”

A loud crowd of 35,452 on a nice summer night saw a Red Sox team that’s peaking at the right time deliver a signature win. Six straight wins over two bad teams (Washington and Colorado) seemed to simply wet the beak of the fan base. The healthy returns of Masataka Yoshida (Wednesday) and Alex Bregman (Friday) added more intrigue. Craig Breslow’s promise of deadline additions did, too. The fact that Boston began a tough stretch of schedule with a gutsy, comeback win over the Rays on Thursday served as a reminder of the team’s capabilities as well.

Then, things reached a fever pitch (no pun intended) Friday night in a game the Red Sox seemed to have no business winning. Starter Hunter Dobbins lasted just five outs before hobbling off with a knee injury that might be serious. Boston reverted back to its early-season ways and handed Tampa Bay a three-run lead on errors and passed balls in the third. The offense couldn’t get much going or cash in on chances, as evidenced by a 2-for-11 line with runners in scoring position. Then, one more good swing from a red-hot Ceddanne Rafaela on a Pete Fairbanks curveball turned a tedious loss into a huge win.

“I faced him the last time they were here and he threw me one curveball I didn’t swing (at),” Rafaela said. “Since then, I wanted to see that curveball again. He’s a great pitcher. He threw a great pitch. I made a great swing.”

Trailing 4-3 entering the ninth against the elite Fairbanks. the Red Sox sent three of their youngest players to the plate in Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony (pinch-hitting) and Rafaela. Mayer grounded out but the ever-patient Anthony worked a walk to put the tying run on base.

Rafaela — who owns a 1.167 OPS, seven homers and 20 RBIs in his last 19 games — waited on a 1-2 breaker that barely clipped the bottom of the strike zone and demolished it at 103 mph to clear the Green Monster easily.

“He’s a good breaking ball hitter,” Cora said. “He likes this stuff. You heard him last night. It’s about winning. He wants that environment tonight, in October, because that was October today with the fans.

“Think about it, it was Marcelo, Roman and Rafaela. That’s pretty young. The future of the organization is bright. The present is bright, too.”

Rafaela’s first career walk-off homer barely tucked itself inside Pesky’s Pole in a chaotic win over the Angels on June 4. It felt poetic that Friday’s was a no-doubter. No one has embodied the Red Sox’ turnaround in the post-Rafael Devers era more than Rafaela, who was somewhat ironically Devers’ clear best friend on the team.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was watching games with my mom in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,” said the Curacao native. “To play in this atmosphere. When I hit that homer, I was thinking about my mom and my wife back home. For this team, it was a special moment.”

A night that was supposed to be about Bregman became yet another that showcased Rafaela’s meteoric rise. It also gave newcomers like Bregman, Garrett Crochet, Carlos Narváez, Mayer, Anthony and others a real taste of what it might be like to play in front of a packed house three months from now.

“That was awesome,” said Bregman. “Obviously, we’re playing a really good team over there. We’ve been playing well. For Rafaela to walk it off and to hear our fans go crazy — you could still hear them in the clubhouse after the game — it was awesome. It was probably my favorite of the win, for sure, so far.”

The remaining 66 games on the schedule — including a daunting post-break stretch against the Cubs, Phillies and Dodgers — will tell the story of this Red Sox season. But on this night, a team wearing a rather unfamiliar green uniform felt some familiar Fenway vibes in front of an appreciative crowd.

“To be in this uniform and feel this place like this, it was a great night for all of us,” Cora said.