Ceddanne Rafaela Channels Forgotten Red Sox Star With Web Gem
The jaw-dropping catch Ceddanne Rafaela made Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park should have looked familiar to Red Sox fans.
Boston was able to beat the Texas Rangers in a matinee rubber game, taking the third game of the series with a 5-0 win. The shutout, Boston’s third of the season, was kept alive by Rafaela who made one of the plays of the year in the outfield in the ninth inning.
Rangers infielder Josh Jung absolutely tagged a Liam Hendriks to deep center to lead off the ninth inning. The problem for Jung? He hit it to the wrong part of the ballpark.
Not only did Jung hit the ball to the deepest part of Fenway, that zip code also happens to be the one patrolled by Rafaela, who can go and get it. As soon as the ball left Jung’s bat at a sizzling 107.9 mph, Rafaela turned to his left and sprinted back to the wall.
He quickly ran out of real estate, but no problem there, as he stuck his glove up and hauled it in before crashing into the wall housing the Red Sox bullpen.
According to Baseball Savant and Statcast metrics, Jung’s rocket had an absurd .990 expected batting average and would have been a home run in 26 of 30 big league ballparks.
“It all started with being prepared,” Rafaela said in an on-field interview with NESN after the game. “I was prepared for that pitch there, and I always say I give it all for my pitchers.”
The web gem is as good a time as any to bring back one of the greatest, and maybe most unheralded, catches in Red Sox history. That’s because Rafaela’s catch on Thursday looked a lot like the play Coco Crisp made in 2007 — a catch that won the Sox the American League pennant.
Given the situation and distance traveled (seriously, go look at where Crisp started that play), the former Red Sox fan favorite gets the slight edge here.
But Rafaela is just 24 — and we’ve seen this before from him — so he has plenty of time and opportunity to outdo Crisp (and himself) moving forward.