Ceddanne Rafaela, Brayan Bello power Red Sox past Rays 4-1, extend winning streak to 10 games
Boston Red Sox's Ceddanne Rafaela celebrates with Marcelo Mayer (39) after hitting a two run homer in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Ceddanne Rafaela looks to left field after hitting a home run in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Brayan Bello delivers a pitch in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Brayan Bello delivers a pitch in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Tampa Bay Rays' Josh Lowe hits a sacrifice fly to score outfielder Jake Mangum in the fourth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Ceddanne Rafaela celebrates with Marcelo Mayer (39) after hitting a two run homer in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Ceddanne Rafaela looks to left field after hitting a home run in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
Boston Red Sox's Brayan Bello delivers a pitch in the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, July 13, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Greg M. Cooper)
BOSTON (AP) — Ceddanne Rafaela hit a two-run homer, Brayan Bello pitched one-run ball into the seventh inning and the Boston Red Sox extended their winning streak to 10 games with a 4-1, series-sweeping victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday.
Rafaela, who hit a walk-off, two-run homer for Boston on Friday, hit his 14th homer of the season in the sixth inning. Trevor Story added a go-ahead single in the sixth.
Advertisement
Boston last had a 10-game win streak in July 2018 and heads into the All-Star break in third place in the competitive AL East, behind Toronto and the New York Yankees.
Tampa Bay's Chandler Simpson extended his hitting streak to 16 games, a club record for a rookie. The Rays lost for the 11th time in 14 games and closed out their road trip to Minnesota, Detroit and Boston with a 2-8 record.
The 26-year-old Bello (6-3) gave up six hits, struck out five and didn't issue a walk over 6 1/3 innings. He was coming off his first nine-inning complete game in his previous start. All-Star Aroldis Chapman struck out the final three batters for his 17th save.
Boston moved ahead 1-0 when Rays third baseman Junior Caminero was called for obstruction with his foot blocking the bag on a pickoff play, allowing Marcelo Mayer to score.
Advertisement
The Rays snapped an 18-inning scoreless stretch in the fourth inning, tying the game on Josh Lowe's sacrifice fly.
Ryan Pepiot (6-7) gave up four runs, three earned, in six innings.
Key moment
Rafaela hit a 3-2 fastball in the sixth from Pepiot that sailed just over the Green Monster, bouncing off a tabletop in the front row, after Story's run-scoring single.
Key stat
Story is successful in 16 steal attempts this season. The last Red Sox player to open a season going 16 for 16 was Jacoby Ellsbury in 2008.
Up next
Rays RHP Taj Bradley (5-6, 4.60 ERA) is slated to start Friday at home against Baltimore after the All-Star break.
The Red Sox have not announced a start for the team's series opener in Chicago on Friday. RHP Collin Rea (7-3, 3.91) is set for the Cubs.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is Jerry Jones the biggest problem for the Cowboys?
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton discuss how the Dallas team owner continues to favor making headlines over winning on the field. View more Video Transcript But to your point about the Cowboys, I think to me it is abundantly clear, and I believe if my pulse on the Cowboys fan base is correct, I believe it is now becoming more and more clear to Dallas Cowboys fans. That as long as Jerry Jones is running this franchise and doing the drafting and making free agency decisions, this team will not win a Super Bowl, because Jerry Jones cares way too much about being in the headlines, about being the number one story than he does about actually winning. Because if Jerry Jones actually cared about winning, I don't believe Brian Schottenheimer would be the head coach of this organization. I believe Brian Schottenheimer is the head coach of this organization because Jerry Jones can't handle anybody else getting more publicity and more love and more credit for the Cowboys than he is. What do you do when you realize the owner of your favorite team just isn't a very good owner, you know, and there's nothing you can do. We could talk all day long about Jayden Daniels and what it meant for the resurgence of the Washington Commanders, but you have to acknowledge that that became a heck of a lot easier to accomplish when they cleaned house of everybody in the building. And simply being bad at your job isn't a reason that you're going to be. Forced to sell a team. So if you're a Panthers fan, guess what? You're gonna have Tepper forever until, you know, he decides he wants to go off and mess something else up. If you're a Cowboys fan, you're, you're sort of stuck with whatever this version of Jerry Jones is. I'm a, I'm a diehard Raiders fan. Everybody knows that. I'm stuck with whatever Mark Davis decides year in and year out. Like there is really nothing you can do. For all of the conversation about drafting and quarterbacks and GMs and head coaches, at the end of the day, culture is created from the top down. If the person that leads your Organization is just not good at identifying talent all the way down and then not good at staying out of the way, you suddenly end up being a fan of a team that stinks every single year. Jerry Jones at one point was incredible at his job and I'm not sure that there's been anybody more important to the modern NFL when it comes to modernization and branding. But if you want that, That's great, but if you want Jerry Jones right now to run your favorite football team, I think you're just looking at an abject disaster year in and year out. Close
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
When does Kirk Cousins become an option for Rams?
Matthew Stafford's back injury has not gone away yet and may linger for the entire season, if not ending in surgery, but when you scan NFL depth charts for quarterback help at the conclusion of training camp, no names will stand out as better options than Jimmy Garoppolo. No names except for one and Kirk Cousins will either be one of the weirdest backups in the league at the start of the season or as the shocking trade right before Week 1. The Atlanta Falcons have been hanging onto Cousins and his $27 million salary for the entire season because it's guaranteed money, but also because they're waiting for a dire situation that forces someone to overpay in a trade. Wouldn't you know it, the Rams have a potential situation developing at quarterback and the Falcons have two former Sean McVay coaches — Raheem Morris and Zac Robinson — teaching Cousins a playbook that would strongly resemble the one he'd have in L.A.. Cousins has also spoke at length about how important McVay was to his development and success when the two were paired together in Washington at the start of both of their careers. Even if you think it would be a huge mistake for the Rams to trade for Kirk Cousins, you have to admit that the longer this Stafford situation goes on, the more often we will hear rumors linking L.A. to the only backup in the league who has a winning record with more than 150 career starts. What will Kirk Cousins cost? It's hard to imagine that the Falcons will want anything more than financial relief if a team is willing to trade for Cousins. The team owes him a guaranteed $27.5 million salary, money that comes off of their salary cap if the Rams take the bait. This also implies that the Rams wouldn't have to sacrifice any good draft picks — maybe a day three pick swap in 2026 — and would expect Atlanta to give them salary relief on Cousins or take back a bad contract in return. Rumors before the draft stated that the Falcons wanted $20 million in salary relief but that teams were only offering to take on $10 million. In other words, the Rams might expect the Falcons to pay $17.5 million of Cousins' 2025 salary, leaving $10 million. The only really bad contract that L.A. could trade is Colby Parkinson's, which is $5.25 million. Maybe the Rams would trade Parkinson to the Falcons for Cousins and pay $15 million of his 2025 salary. The Rams are estimated to have $19.5 million in 2025 cap space right now. Is Kirk Cousins good? Although Cousins struggled in his last 5 starts prior to being benched for Michael Penix (1 TD/9 INT), he was pretty decent before that and was also dealing with multiple injuries: The Achilles tear that he was recovering from and then an elbow injury suffered during the season that immediately preceded his downfall. There is also the probability that Cousins is not a great fit for Robinson's offense, which does imply that he could have some setbacks playing for McVay. However, McVay is better than Zac Robinson and would have a better idea of how to utilize Cousins to the best of his abilities. Maybe the better question is, 'Is Cousins better than Jimmy Garoppolo?' and I think the answer to that is definitely yes, and it's not even close. But some would disagree with me and that's fine too. It's not like comparing Aaron Rodgers to Blake Bortles, but Cousins has had a far more productive and successful career than Garoppolo and if McVay could choose between the two right now without having to make a trade or pay either of them, I think no question the winner is Cousins. In six seasons with the Vikings, Cousins had a passer rating of 101.2 and he had his best seasons playing for former Rams OC Kevin O'Connell. Do the Rams need Cousins? Well, not yet. Matthew Stafford could be fine as soon as Tuesday! It's not clear if this is an emergency situation yet or not and the Rams don't want to trade for Cousins if this is merely an issue that lingers for Stafford for the year and it makes him sore. They would only consider this if Stafford is headed to IR and that's when we know that Cousins will be an option, if he hasn't been traded by then. There are other teams that might kick the tires on Cousins too, including the Colts, the Browns, and his former team in Minnesota. For now, Cousins remains a backup to Penix, but in a month he might get his job right back with Atlanta. Anything could happen in the next 1-2 months with Kirk Cousins. It's not a name that any Rams fan wants to talk about. If this Stafford issue gets worse though, Cousins rumors will be unavoidable.
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Stock Car Racer Passes Away After Crashing
Read the full story on Backfire News Veteran stock car racer Robbie Brewer passed away after crashing at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina on Saturday night. While his collision with the wall on turn four during the Sportsman division race looked scary, that was apparently not what killed the reports from local news stations say Brewer suffered some sort of medical emergency which caused him to crash. Pictures of his racecar from after the incident look worse because track personnel had to rip off the roof just to reach him. They then pulled the man out of the stock car, loaded him into an ambulance, and rushed him off to the hospital. According to Flo Racing, Brewer suffered a heart attack while he was driving. There were just four laps left in the first of two 20-lap races for the Sportsman division on Saturday night. Fortunately, after Brewer's car hit the wall and bounced off, other racers were able to avoid a secondary collision with him, otherwise the night might have been even more tragic. Brewer enjoyed a successful career of racing, having one 11 times in Sportsman races at Bowman Gray Stadium. He was also the division champion back in 2011. For the 2015 season, the man racked up four wins, his best showing. With 311 career starts at Bowman, it's a track he knew well. Unfortunately, it was also the last one he ever raced. Image via WXII
