Ceddanne Rafaela’s two-run single in seventh helps Red Sox defeat Rangers and secure series victory

Ceddanne Rafaela’s game Saturday began with a run-permitting error. It very nearly concluded with consecutive swings at head-high pitches.

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But when he held up just enough at the second of those, he earned himself — and the Red Sox — another chance. Seconds later, it turned it into perhaps the biggest hit of the day, a two-out, two-strike, two-run tiebreaking single in the seventh, pushing the Sox to a 6-3 win over the Rangers.

It was the first time since April 7-8 that the Red Sox won at Fenway Park on consecutive days.

They are 29-39 and, by taking the first two against Texas, have secured a second home series victory in 11 chances.

The Rangers (34-36) got a home run from Jake Burger, the 100th of his career, off Tyron Guerrero in the eighth inning to cut the deficit to one. But Jarren Duran’s two-run shot in the bottom of the inning provided the Sox with a bigger cushion.

Aroldis Chapman, pitching for just the third time in three weeks, worked around a leadoff single to record his 14th save of the season. He has not blown a save opportunity since July.

He struck out two in his scoreless inning, pushing his career total to 1,359. He is just four shy of Hoyt Wilhelm’s all-time reliever record of 1,363.

Ranger Suarez limited the Rangers to two runs in five innings, an overall solid outing split into two very different sections. He struck out four of his first six batters, then just three of the next 17. He retired eight in a row to begin his day, then allowed eight of the next 15 to reach.

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Texas righthander Jacob deGrom, similarly, held the Sox to two runs (six hits) in six innings — in part by throwing low-90s sliders as fast as Suarez’s fastballs. He struck out five and walked none.

Neither pitcher encountered trouble until the third, when the teams combined for three runs.

Facing his ninth batter, Suarez allowed his first base runner: Nicky Lopez, who managed to fist a soft line drive off the second-base bag for a single.

Wyatt Langford followed with a single to center. When Rafaela threw poorly to the wrong base (second), Lopez scored from first. He ran hard the whole way and was aggressively waved around by third base coach Corey Ragsdale. There wasn’t even a play at the plate as second baseman Isiah Kiner-Falefa bobbled the ball 100 feet away.

The Sox bounced right back by plating a pair in the bottom of the inning, snapping deGrom’s 15-inning scoreless streak. Kiner-Falefa and Marcelo Mayer opened with back-to-back singles. Mickey Gasper (single) and Wilyer Abreu (single) drove them in.

For the rest of his afternoon, Suarez flirted with doom but managed to escape. The Rangers loaded the bases in the fourth (no outs) and fifth (one out) but came away with just one more run, on Michael Helman’s sacrifice fly in the fourth.

In the latter jam, Suarez struck out Ezequiel Duran and Jake Burger, both looking at cutters. Burger thought he had ball four, which would have forced in the go-ahead run, and challenged the call. The automated ball-stirke challenge system showed it indeed nipped the up-and-away corner of the zone, ending the inning.

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