{"id":828697,"date":"2026-07-28T08:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828697\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:27:08","slug":"ceddanne-rafaelas-grand-slam-sends-red-sox-past-as-4-2-for-18th-victory-in-20-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828697\/","title":{"rendered":"Ceddanne Rafaela&#8217;s grand slam sends Red Sox past A&#8217;s 4-2 for 18th victory in 20 games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. &#8212; Ceddanne Rafaela hit his first major league grand slam and the Boston Red Sox beat the Athletics 4-2 after being held without a hit through five innings Monday night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Connor Wong doubled leading off the sixth for the first hit against Athletics rookie starter Jack Perkins (2-6), who was pulled after walking Willson Contreras with two outs. Jos\u00e9 Suarez walked Wilyer Abreu to load the bases, setting the stage for <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MLB\/status\/2081940514434081171?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Rafaela&#8217;s 11th homer<\/a> and a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Curtis Mead struck out looking his first time up in his Boston debut and then left after <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TalkinBaseball_\/status\/2081936196922438102?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">he was hit<\/a> on the wrist by a pitch his second time up. The Red Sox <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/red-sox-nationals-trade-221a69aa921d46350898738735365196\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">acquired Mead from the Wasington Nationals on Saturday night<\/a> for rookie pitcher Connelly Early.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Tyler <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Athletics\/status\/2081921222254993527?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Soderstrom extended<\/a> his hitting streak to 10 games when he launched his 17th homer to give the Athletics a 1-0 lead two batters into the bottom of the first against Payton Tolle. Jonah Heim homered for the 10th time to cut it to 4-2 in the sixth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Tolle (6-6) allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1\/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one to help the surging Red Sox (55-50) win for the 18th time in 20 games. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The A&#8217;s have lost three straight and 24 of 30.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Justin Slaten got the final two outs in the sixth for Boston, and Jovani Mor\u00e1n and Garrett Whitlock each pitched a perfect inning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Aroldis Chapman gave up a leadoff single to Colby Thomas in the ninth, and pinch-hitter Nick Kurtz reached on a one-out fielding error at second by Anthony Seigler. Chapman struck out Henry Bolte and Alika Williams for his 25th save in 27 opportunities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Perkins walked three and was charged with two runs on one hit in 5 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Red Sox LHP Jake Bennett (6-3, 2.58 ERA) starts Tuesday opposite Athletics LHP Gage Jump (3-6, 4.42).<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">AP MLB: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. &#8212; Ceddanne Rafaela hit his first major league grand slam and the Boston Red Sox&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,4034,591,6784,85],"class_list":["post-828697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}