The Boston Red Sox came into their matchup on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays as the hottest team in baseball, riding a seven-game winning streak. And that streak continued in emphatic fashion after Ceddanne Rafaela came up with one of the biggest hits of the season, which the Red Sox TV and radio broadcast teams certainly rose to the occasion for.
Tampa Bay went into the bottom of the ninth inning clinging to a 4-3 lead with closer Pete Fairbanks, who had not been scored upon in his last three outings, on the mound. However, the bottom of the Red Sox order wasted little time changing Fairbanks’ luck.
After retiring the first batter of the inning, Fairbanks would walk Roman Anthony, bringing Ceddanne Rafaela, who represented the winning run, to the plate. And Rafaela would indeed be the winning run after sending a slider over the Green Monster at Fenway Park, walking it off for the Red Sox.
On the call of the home run, Red Sox TV play-by-play voice Dave O’Brien was as animated as he has been all season long, voicing his excitement about the eighth straight win for the Red Sox.
“A swing and a drive!” said O’Brien. “Oh! He killed it! And it’s out of here! It’s gone! Ceddanne does it, the Red Sox win it! They walk it off against Tampa Bay! Are you kidding me? That is the sound of eight straight at Fenway!”
Meanwhile, on the Red Sox radio broadcast on WEEI, Will Flemming was equally as amped up about Ceddanne’s blast.
“Swung on and driven!” said Flemming. “High, and deep, and gone! Walk-off homer, Ceddanne, say goodnight! He cannot be stopped. And the Red Sox have won eight in a row!”
Prior to this eight-game winning streak, the Red Sox had shown very little for Flemming or O’Brien to get this excited about, largely floundering near the bottom of the AL East standings for much of the season. But now that the Red Sox are very much back in the mix in the division, Red Sox fans gave Flemming and O’Brien their flowers for their calls.
Say what you want about him but can we take a moment and appreciate this call by Dave O’Brien?
— Josh Finkle (@joshdafink) July 12, 2025
While both Red Sox broadcasts were filled with sheer emotion, the Rays TV broadcast was the polar opposite, as there was over a minute of silence after Dewayne Staats calmly informed Rays fans that the Red Sox had won the game.
“Wow, Red Sox win 5-4,” said Staats on the call of Ceddanne Rafaela’s home run.
Someone may wanna check on the ray’s announcers after this walk-off. Almost a whole minute without a word 🤣 #rays #redsox pic.twitter.com/Il7PXNNbif
— jack breedlove (@BreedloveJack) July 12, 2025
Clearly, the momentum for these two teams couldn’t be headed in more starkly opposite directions heading into Game 2 of the series on Saturday. So it will be interesting to see whether the Red Sox can extend their win streak to nine games with just two games left to play before the All-Star break.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.