Red Sox outfielder ‘with clutch gene’ strikes again; ‘I wanted to be in the situation’

“And I wanted to be in the situation today, and it came true,” he said.

It marked Rafaela’s first career pinch-hit home run.

Tracy didn’t start Rafaela because he wanted to get the left-handed bats of both Mickey Gasper and Masataka Yoshida in the lineup against Phillies right-handed starter Andrew Painter. But Tracy said before the game, “You’ll probably see him (Rafaela) late.”

With Phillies lefty reliever Tanner Banks on the mound, Tracy used Rafaela as a pinch hitter for Yoshida. The Phillies then countered, bringing in righty Orion Kerkering to face Rafaela.

“Plainly put, right on rights are always a little bit better than left on lefts,” Tracy said, discussing his decision to use Rafaela in that spot. “And you know you want the defense out there. We’re at the point of the game where we want the center fielder out there and it’s going to be a right on right and he’s got the ability to lose one. Just a great at-bat.”

Rafaela was down 1-2 in the count after taking a sinker for a strike, a sweeper for a ball and then another sweeper for a strike. Kerkering’s fourth pitch was a 96.8 mph fastball, and Rafaela crushed it.

“I was hunting a fastball, looking for a fastball,” Rafaela said. “He threw me two sweepers, so I was just looking for the fastball.”

Rafaela is 3 for 10 with one homer, one double, four RBIs and four strikeouts in his career as a pinch hitter. He is 2 for 3 with four RBIs as a pinch hitter this year.

Both Rafaela and Trevor Story went deep in Wednesday’s win. Boston improved to 18-24.

“Two big swings in two big spots and Rafaela obviously huge right there,” Tracy said.

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