Red Sox sweep Rays, enter All-Star break riding 10-game win streak

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jul 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — The good times keep rolling for Ceddanne Rafaela and the Red Sox, who officially go into the All-Star break as the hottest team in baseball.

Rafaela delivered the exclamation mark again in Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, following his go-ahead knock on Thursday and his walk-off home run on Friday with a two-run shot in the bottom of the sixth that capped off a three-run rally.

Trevor Story kicked that rally off with the go-ahead RBI single and Brayan Bello painted a gem, allowing one run over 6 1/3 innings to help complete the four-game sweep and give the Red Sox 10 straight wins heading into the break.

You have to go all the way back to July 2018 for the last time the Red Sox ripped off that many wins in a row.

After bludgeoning teams offensively for the first week of the streak, the Red Sox operated with little room for error throughout the Rays series. Boston won each of the first three games by one run — a notable development given how the club had lost an MLB-high 19 one-run games prior — and Sunday was shaping up to be another razor thin affair until the Red Sox finally pulled ahead in the sixth.

It initially appeared as if the Rays would take a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Chandler Simpson singled, Jonathan Aranda was hit by a pitch and Yandy Diaz hit a fast-sinking line drive that Rafaela just barely missed on what would have been a sensational diving catch. But even though there were two outs, the speedy Simpson held up and waited to see if Rafaela would make the grab, and that hesitation proved crucial when the center fielder popped up and threw out Aranda at third base to end the inning.

Simpson, despite being arguably the fastest player in the sport, was not able to cross home plate before Alex Bregman made the tag on Aranda. As a result, what should have been a sure run didn’t count.

The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third under similarly zany circumstances. Marcelo Mayer hit a leadoff double, advanced to third and appeared to be picked off by Rays catcher Matt Thaiss. But Rays third baseman Junior Caminero was ruled to have obstructed Mayer’s path back to the bag, so the Red Sox rookie was awarded home.

Neither offense could do much of anything for a while afterwards. Rays right-hander Ryan Pepiot kept the Red Sox at bay through the fifth, and Bello limited the Rays to just a Josh Lowe sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth, which tied the game at 1-1.

Then the Red Sox took control in the sixth and never looked back.

Roman Anthony started things off with a double high off the Green Monster, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Story’s RBI single. Story moved into scoring position himself with a stolen base, making him a perfect 16 for 16 on the season, and then Rafaela struck for his two-run shot, giving him 14 homers on the season.

Over his last 60 games dating back to May 7, essentially a full third of the season, Rafaela is now batting .301 with 12 homers, 33 RBI and a .906 OPS.

Bello came out after 105 pitches in the top of the seventh and finished with one run allowed over 6 1/3 innings with six hits, no walks and five strikeouts for his seventh quality start in eight outings. Justin Wilson recorded two quick outs to finish the seventh, Garrett Whitlock worked around a pair of singles to post a scoreless eighth, and Aroldis Chapman locked down his 17th save of the season with a perfect ninth.

Now Chapman will head to Atlanta to represent Boston at Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game, while the rest of the Red Sox (53-45) get a couple of days to rest before picking back up Friday at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs.

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