Ceddanne Rafaela’s improbable grand slam leads Red Sox to win over Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Immediately after the most consequential swing of the Red Sox’ 4-2 win over the Athletics on Monday, Ceddanne Rafaela spiked his bat into the ground, unable to bring himself to watch the ball fly.

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Left fielder Colby Thomas took a step toward the infield.

The Red Sox’ bases-loaded threat in the sixth inning — their best and arguably only scoring opportunity of the game — was all but over.

“In this ballpark,” interim manager Chad Tracy said, “you don’t know.”

And so that popup kept going, going, going — until it was gone.

Thomas leaped at the wall, stuck his glove over the top, and caught a piece of the ball. It tipped off, though, onto the netting for the first grand slam of Rafaela’s career.

At Sutter Health Park, a Triple-A facility and the temporary home of the vagabond Athletics as they await construction of their Las Vegas ballpark, anything is possible. Sometimes, in the stadium that has rated as more hitter-friendly this year than even the Rockies’ Coors Field, routine-looking popups to left field go over the wall.

Sometimes, those popups are game-changers.

“As an outfielder, when I see [Thomas] going to the side and then looking back, I know he’s trying to calculate it, that he’s not under it, and that’s the point [when he realized it had a chance],” Rafaela said. “I was like, go ball, please.”

Rafaela’s blast (of sorts) came off his bat at 98 miles per hour, which is hard but not usually homer-hard. He also hit it at a 40-degree angle — which is to say, very up.

Batted balls with those characteristics typically result in a hit — not a home run, but a mere hit — in one out of every 10 instances, according to MLB’s data.

Tracy, a veteran of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in his playing days, knew enough in the moment to know it had a chance.

“The ball can carry here, and it did,” he said. “If you hit one hard in the air, it’s got a shot, especially to that side of the field. Just a big swing and a big moment.”

Payton Tolle said: “It all counts the same.”

For the Red Sox, who endured a sketchy ninth inning that included Anthony Seigler’s fielding error and Aroldis Chapman throwing 24 pitches to strand the would-be tying run at first base, that one swing was enough.

They are 55-50 after winning 18 of their past 20 games (and 26 of their past 33), continuing their torrid run leading up to the trade deadline next Monday.

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Before the Red Sox finally broke through, righthander Jack Perkins held them hitless for five innings.

Perkins, who entered the game with a 6.75 ERA, issued three walks (and hit a batter) along the way. But he didn’t yield a knock until Connor Wong doubled into the left-field corner to lead off the sixth, sparking the rally that climaxed with Rafaela’s long ball.

Willson Contreras drew a walk to get Perkins out of the game, and Wilyer Abreu did the same against lefthanded reliever Jose Suarez. That brought up Rafaela, whom Tracy dropped to fifth in the batting order to make room for newcomer Curtis Mead in the No. 2 hole.

“We didn’t have a ton of chances,” Tracy said. “The Rafaela home run was obviously huge. But the at-bats preceding it were even huger. The walks by Willson and Abreu to get that set up, and then it was a good swing. In this ballpark, it sometimes takes one swing, and he gave us a good swing.”

Perhaps Perkins’s most impactful pitch, from the Red Sox’ perspective: a 95-m.p.h. fastball that hit Mead on the left wrist in the fourth inning. When he had trouble gripping a bat in the fifth, he came out of the game, an early and painful end to his Sox debut.

Mead was diagnosed with a bruised left wrist; X-rays were negative.

“We’re just going to take a day to day and see how he feels coming in [Tuesday], but a little sore,” Tracy said. “But at least right now, it looks like we dodged a bullet maybe.”

Tolle survived 5⅓ innings, allowing only two runs — on solo home runs from Tyler Soderstrom in the first inning (to left field and similar to Rafaela’s) and to Jonah Heim to lead off the sixth.

He otherwise worked around traffic on the bases, five hits and a walk (plus a baserunner resulting from Andruw Monasterio’s fielding error) altogether. He struck out seven. In six tries, Tolle had a lone 1-2-3 inning.

On the season, Tolle is up to 110 innings in the majors and minors — edging his personal-high 108 from last season.

“I feel good,” Tolle said. “I hope that they continue to let me go out there and keep pushing limits.”

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