BOSTON — Center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela’s diving catch to rob Milwaukee’s Joey Ortiz in the second inning Friday resembled Coco Crisp’s grab to rob David Wright in 2006.
Rafaela sprinted to his right and fully extended to make the catch on Ortiz’s 335-foot, 91.3 mph liner in front of the warning track in left-center field.
“I was running after it like I was possibly going to have a chance and I saw his eyes and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m just going to get out of his way and let him make the play,’” left fielder Jarren Duran said.
Rafaela’s catch had a 35% catch probability. It was one of the few Red Sox highlights in a 7-2 loss to the Brewers here at Fenway Park. Kutter Crawford struggled, lasting just 4 ⅓ innings and giving up six runs.
“Dude, any ball that’s hit, I’m just like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna get that,’” Duran said. “I instantly think he’s going to get to it because he’s that good of an athlete.”
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Rafaela has struggled offensively this season. He’s hitting just .193 with a .221 on-base percentage, .351 slugging percentage and .572 OPS in 50 games (183 plate appearances). He needs to do a better job of controlling the strike zone. His chase percentage of 41.8% ranks in the third percentile among major league hitters, per Baseball Savant. He has drawn just six walks while striking out 46 times.
But Rafaela has helped this team with his defense both in center field and at shortstop.
“For him, that’s not hard to get to,” Duran said. “That guy is a fricken amazing outfielder. We’ve all seen it day in and day out. For him to go to short to the outfield and just run stuff down, it’s amazing to watch.”
Hamilton records first three-hit game
David Hamilton recorded his first career three-hit game. And it came against his former team. Boston acquired Hamilton from the Brewers in the Hunter Renfroe trade Dec. 21, 2021.
“Just another team, really,” Hamilton said about playing against Milwaukee.
Hamilton has gone 10-for-31 (.323 batting average) with a homer, three doubles and one triple in May.
He said not playing every day has given him time to work on his swing.
“I’ve kind of just been working a lot in the cage recently with the time off that I had,” Hamilton said. “I was just doing little tweaks on the swing and it’s been working. So I’m going to keep trying to do it.”
