Ceddanne Rafaela drilled a two-run home run in the ninth inning and the visiting Boston Red Sox pulled out a 3-2 victory against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday night.
Rafaela’s 15th homer came off Keegan Akin after Jarren Duran reached on a lead-off single.
The Red Sox have won six of seven games and will go for a four-game series sweep Thursday afternoon. Greg Weissert (6-4) was the winning pitcher with one inning of relief and Aroldis Chapman posted his 26th save, striking out the side in the ninth.
Roman Anthony homered for the Red Sox as the game’s first batter, but the offense never got going after that until the ninth, even though David Hamilton had a pair of singles. Duran and Rafaela also finished with two hits.
Dylan Carlson drove in a go-ahead run with a seventh-inning double and Baltimore received clutch pitching from Roansy Contreras in his Orioles debut. Akin (4-4), who escaped an eighth-inning threat, took the loss.
Dylan Beavers had two hits, including a run-scoring double, for the Orioles.
The Red Sox improved to 6-1 on their road trip.
Boston starter Brayan Bello was charged with two runs, one earned, in 6 2/3 innings.
Dietrich Enns, used in an opener’s role for Baltimore, lasted 2 2/3 innings and gave up only Anthony’s homer. Contreras followed with 4 1/3 shutout innings, giving up three hits and one walk with two strikeouts.
Contreras left with runners on the corners with no outs in the eighth. Akin struck out Anthony and Alex Bregman before Trevor Story grounded into a fielder’s choice.
Anthony has seven home runs this year, including two in three nights leading off games in this series. Both of those homers came on the fifth pitches of the respective games.
Baltimore’s first run was unearned because Coby Mayo reached on a two-out, second-inning single and advanced to second base on a passed ball before Beavers’ RBI double.
Carlson’s double in the eighth off Justin Wilson drove in Beavers, who drew a two-out walk as the final batter to face Bello.
