Alex Cora credits surprising unsung hero for Orioles win

The Boston Red Sox kept rolling Wednesday with their third straight win over the Baltimore Orioles and their sixth victory in the last seven games. Things were looking bleak for Boston, down a run in the ninth inning. But Ceddanne Rafaela’s clutch two-run homer put the Red Sox up 3-2 and the team held on to improve to 74-60 on the season.

Following the win, manager Alex Cora went out of his way to give bench coach Ramon Vazquez the credit. “Vazquez actually won the game today…. We were talking about the bullpen game and all that, and trying to split up the lefties and how we're going to do it, thinking that they were going to bring the righty right away. He said, let's hit Rafaela fifth, you know? And they have a lefty on the mound [late in the game]. He faces Jarren, who gets a hit, and Ceddanne gets to face a lefty. And he hits it out of the ballpark,” Cora explained, per MLB.com’s Ian Browne.

“So I tip my hat to him. It's total team effort here. It's not about a one man show, whatever. Everybody contributes. And that was a fun one,” he added.

Red Sox share credit for comeback win over Orioles

The Orioles started lefty reliever Dietrich Enns in a bullpen game. The Red Sox responded by moving Rafaela, a righty, up to fifth in the batting order. The center fielder had been hitting seventh for Boston.

While he didn’t do any damage against Enns, Rafaela had a big day. And as Vazquez and Cora predicted, Baltimore went to a lefty late in the game, calling on Keegan Akin to protect a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning.

Akin breezed through the eighth but ran into trouble in the ninth inning. Jarren Duran led off with a single before Rafaela belted an 86 mph changeup to left center for a two-run, go-ahead homer. Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to seal the victory.

Durran and Rafaela were unlikely heroes for Boston. Duran has been mired in a month-long slump. The fifth-year veteran has a .683 OPS in August with just two home runs and 11 runs scored.

Meanwhile, Rafaela has been even worse. Since returning from the All-Star break he’s slashing .188/.234/.258 with no home runs and just five RBI in his last 35 games. Prior to Wednesday's game-winner, Rafaela last homered on July 13.

The Red Sox are four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the division. But Cora is eyeing the playoffs as Boston leads the AL Wild Card race.