All the attention went to Ceddanne Rafaela after his two-run home run in the seventh inning was the difference in a 3-1 win for the Boston Red Sox over the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park on Friday night.
But Red Sox manager Alex Cora made sure to put another player in the limelight following the win.
Cora applauded the at-bat right before Rafaela’s clutch homer from Enmanuel Valdez, who worked a 12-pitch walk against White Sox reliever Matt Foster to set the table for his teammate.
“(Rafaela) got a pitch in the zone, put a good swing, but the at-bat before, that was the game right there,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “(Valdez) keeps putting good at-bats. That’s what he does. Played good defense, got the hit to right field, and there, he kept fighting, fighting pitches until the walk.
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“Yeah, the homer will get the headlines but the at-bat of the game was that one.”
Thanks to Valdez, Rafaela saw plenty of what Foster had to offer from the on-deck circle. Rafaela then took the first pitch he saw from Foster and sent it into the Green Monster seats.
And Rafaela made sure to give Valdez credit, too.
“That was huge,” Rafaela told NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “Him getting after that, be right there for us. It was huge for me and he makes my job easier.”
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Valdez might have been on to something by paving the way for Rafaela. The Red Sox are now a perfect 14-0 when Rafaela hits a homer this season.
Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-White Sox game:
— It was a surprise to see Josh Winckowski on the mound in the ninth inning in a save situation over Kenley Jansen. Cora said Jansen, who struggled in his last outing Wednesday but had the off day Thursday to recover, wasn’t available. Cora didn’t elaborate further.
But Winckowski stepped up tossing a 1-2-3 inning on 11 pitches to earn his first save of the season and fourth overall of his career.
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“You get a little bit more used to it, but honestly, any time it’s a save in a big league game it means a lot against any team,” Winckowski told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Kind of as you get out there to the mound sometimes there’s a little something, but usually when you get out there and settle in, everything is kind of normal.”
— Rafael Devers showed some signs of coming out of his prolonged slump — he entered the game with just four hits in his last 41 at-bats (.098 batting average). He collected two hits in the win.
— Masataka Yoshida picked up a couple of bruises courtesy of White Sox pitching. Yoshida got hit twice, including once in the back which prompted a long look from Cora and a member of the Red Sox training staff. Yoshida stayed in the game, though.
— The Red Sox and White Sox take the field at Fenway Park again on Saturday with Cooper Criswell and Garrett Crochet opposing one another on the mound. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on FOX.
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The Red Sox return to NESN airwaves for Sunday’s series finale. That contest is a 1:35 p.m. start.
