Ceddanne Rafaela's 308-foot HR lifts Red Sox past Angels.
BOSTON -- Ceddanne Rafaela curled a home run around the Pesky Pole in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday, and the Boston Red Sox rallied after trailing four different times to beat the Los Angeles Angels 11-9.The home run to right field was just 308 feet, making it the shortest walk-off homer since Statcast tracking began in 2015 -- 24 feet shorter than the next closest.
It would have been a home run in only one major league ballpark -- Fenway. And it was the second-shortest HR by any player within the Statcast era, the only shorter one being by the San Francisco Giants' Stephen Vogt (307 feet on Sept. 18, 2019, at Fenway).
"I was like, 'If it's fair, it's gone.' So I was hoping it stayed fair," Rafaela told reporters. "I was really happy because we grinded today. To win this game was huge for us. I was really happy."
The Angels blew 4-0, 7-5, 8-7 and 9-8 leads, with Rafael Devers bouncing a chopper between the gloves of second baseman Chris Taylor and shortstop Zach Neto behind second base to tie it 9-9 in the eighth.
Each of the first three times the Red Sox scored, Los Angeles answered with runs of its own. But after walking Mike Trout to lead off the ninth, Cooper Criswell (1-0) got the next three batters out to give Boston a chance to walk it off.
In the bottom half, Abraham Toro singled with one out and Rafaela hit the 308-foot liner over the short wall that goes from the foul pole toward the bullpens in right.
Rafaela became the youngest Red Sox player (24 years, 259 days) with a walk-off HR over the past 25 years.
Taylor Ward had four RBIs for the Angels, who were going for a three-game sweep.
