NEW YORK — Red Sox rookie Ceddanne Rafaela crushed a go-ahead two-run homer to center field in the 10th inning in his first ever game at Yankee Stadium on Friday.
“I always was a Red Sox fan and these types of games are the games I always dreamed about,” Rafaela said. “Having those types of at-bats, those are the type of games I really wanted to be in.”
The Red Sox won 5-3 over the Yankees in comeback fashion. Masataka Yoshida tied it in the ninth with a two-out, two-run homer to right field.
Rafaela grew up a fan of the Red Sox. He took after his mother, Recheline, a terrific softball player who rooted for the Red Sox. Manny Ramirez was Rafaela’s favorite hitter growing up. Dustin Pedroia was his favorite defender.
“It was awesome. It was nice,” Rafaela said about playing here at Yankee Stadium for the first time.
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Rafaela connected on a Tommy Kahnle 95 mph fastball middle of the plate and sent it 412 feet.
“Keep it simple and try to get the best pitch,” he said about his approach.
It was Rafaela’s 10th homer of the season. He entered Friday batting .352 (31-for-88) with a .380 on-base percentage, .500 slugging percentage, .880 OPS, two homers, five doubles and one triple in his previous 23 games dating back to June 6.
“Huge for us,” manager Alex Cora said. “He’s been doing a good job. Hunting pitches in the zone. Hitting the ball hard. And we just wanted him to do the job in that situation. Just hit the ball to right-center or hit a ground ball to second. He stayed on a pitch and crushed it.”
Speedster David Hamilton was the automatic runner at second base in the 10th.
“I think Hammy changed the game, too,” Cora said. “When he came in, put pressure on them. He’s the runner at second in that inning. You can see that they’re paying attention to him. And (Rafaela) got a pitch over the heart of the plate and put a good swing on it.”
