Red Sox 4, Athletics 2: Ceddanne Rafaela's First Career Slam Beats a Costly No-Hit Bid

Jack Perkins was one bad swing away from a night nobody would have believed, five-plus innings of one-hit ball against a real lineup. Then Connor Wong doubled to start the sixth, and four batters later Ceddanne Rafaela had his first career grand slam. Tyler Soderstrom and Jonah Heim went deep to answer, but it was not enough. Red Sox win 4-2. A's fall to 44-61.

For five innings and change, this had the shape of the kind of night Jack Perkins does not get to have very often on a team headed nowhere in July. One hit. That is what the Red Sox managed against the rookie right-hander through five and two-thirds innings, and Sutter Health Park had started to feel that particular electricity that builds around a no-hit bid, even a modest one against a division leader. Then Connor Wong doubled to open the sixth, and the night that had been building toward something special turned into one more example of how fast this can all come apart.

Tyler Soderstrom had already done his part. He turned on a pitch in the first and drove it 375 feet to left-center for his 17th homer of the year, a rare early lead for an A's team that has not had many of those lately. Perkins protected it for five clean innings after that, three walks the only real blemish on an otherwise sharp line, before Wong's double got the sixth started. Jose Suarez came in and walked Wilyer Abreu to load the bases, and Ceddanne Rafaela made the Athletics pay for all of it, a grand slam to left-center that scored Wong, Contreras and Abreu ahead of him and turned a 1-0 A's lead into a 4-1 Red Sox lead in the time it took the ball to land.

Give the offense credit for answering instead of folding. Jonah Heim took Payton Tolle deep for a solo shot later in that same sixth inning, pulling the A's back within 4-2, and that is where it stayed. Aroldis Chapman came on for Boston and struck out the side in order in the ninth for his 25th save, and the ninth-inning threat everybody in green and gold was hoping for never really materialized. Perkins finished with the loss despite giving up just one hit all night, a stat line that will read as unlucky for years before anyone forgets it.

This is the kind of game that stings more than a blowout, because for six innings the A's had built something worth being excited about and one bad sequence in the sixth erased most of it. Soderstrom's power and a five-inning no-hit bid from a rookie are real building blocks, even in a season that is not going anywhere in the standings. The final score says Red Sox 4, A's 2. The box score says this team is closer to competitive than its record admits. A's fall to 44-61 and try again tomorrow.

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