The Red Sox couldn't buy a hit against the Athletics for five innings on Monday night in West Sacramento, and Tyler Soderstrom made sure they'd need every bit of patience they had left. He turned on a first-inning pitch and put Oakland up 1-0 before most of Boston's lineup had even settled in.
Soderstrom's 375-foot blast in the first inning got the A's on the board early.
That homer was Soderstrom's 17th of the year, and it looked for a while like it might be the difference. The Red Sox didn't manage a hit off Oakland's staff until Connor Wong doubled to lead off the sixth. But that's all it took to flip the game. Willson Contreras and Wilyer Abreu drew back-to-back walks to load the bases, and up stepped Ceddanne Rafaela against reliever Jose Suarez.
Rafaela hadn't hit a grand slam at any level of the majors before that at-bat. He got one, sending a ball out to give Boston a 4-1 lead they wouldn't relinquish. It was his 11th homer of the season, and by far the biggest.
Rafaela's first career grand slam flipped the game in Boston's favor.
Jonah Heim answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to make it 4-2, but Boston's bullpen slammed the door from there. Aroldis Chapman closed it out for his 25th save in 27 chances, and Payton Tolle's start (5 1/3 innings, 2 runs, 7 strikeouts) held up as the win.
A second angle of the slam, with the scoreboard confirming Boston's 4-1 lead in the 6th.
The bigger story here is what the Red Sox have become. This win pushed Boston to 55-50 and, more strikingly, 18-2 over their last 20 games. That's not a hot week, that's a full-blown transformation of a season. Meanwhile the Athletics keep sliding the other direction, having dropped 3 straight and 24 of their last 30. Two teams trending in completely opposite directions, and Rafaela's first career slam was just the latest exclamation point on Boston's run.