The Fenway Park crowd was on its feet as Romy Gonzalez cracked a single to put the winning run on base in the ninth inning. Everyone should've known what was going to come next — Ceddanne Rafaela came to the plate, and he was wearing Fenway Green.
Tommy Kahnle fired and Rafaela lifted a double to dead center field. It hit the top of the wall and deflected right, away from the Detroit Tigers' outfielders. Gonzalez sprinted home, and Rafaela slid into third base as the lights went out, "Dirty Water" played, and his teammates mobbed him.
The Boston Red Sox clinched their first playoff appearance since 2021 on Rafaela's late-game heroics. They beat the Tigers, the longtime first-place team in the American League Central, 4-3, on their league-leading 12th walk off win of the year.
Kyle Harrison posted an up-and-down start and got into trouble early. The Tigers loaded the bases against him in the first inning, but a heroic catch from Jarren Duran spared him any damage. Harrison evened out in the second and third innings, getting through both in just four batters, but Detroit broke through with four straight singles in the fourth frame.
Ceddanne Rafaela walks off the Tigers to send the Red Sox into the postseason for the first time since 2021
WALK-OFF CLINCH. pic.twitter.com/cJ49xCzKJs
— Red Sox (@RedSox) September 27, 2025
After Javier Báez's RBI single, Jahmai Jones drilled a double up the left field line, and the Tigers took an easy 3-0 lead. The Red Sox pulled Harrison afterward, and he finished his appearance with three runs on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts.
Tigers starter Casey Mize posted great outing despite his team's eventual loss. He kept the Red Sox off the board until the fourth inning, when Alex Bregman doubled and Masataka Yoshida quickly plated him to open the scoring for Boston.
Mize fanned eight Red Sox in his 6.1 inning start, and he retired eight straight from the fourth through sixth frames. But Yoshida struck with another single, and Rafaela doubled to advance him to third base, which ended his night in the seventh inning. Kyle Finnegan followed, and Nathaniel Lowe lifted a sacrifice fly to score Yoshida to bring Boston within one run.
The Red Sox's deadly relief tandem, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman, kept the Tigers off the board in the eighth and ninth inning, respectively. Whitlock struck out the side in the eighth, and Carlos Narváez didn't let his inning go to waste. He opened the bottom of the eighth frame with a single, and he was replaced by Nate Eaton on the base paths, who proceeded to steal second and third base after a botched pickoff attempt. Jarren Duran then plated him with a hard line drive to left field. Chapman rebounded from a leadoff double and steal of third base to send his team to the bottom of the ninth in a 3-3 deadlock.
Rafaela walked the Red Sox off, as he has before. Finally, with their youth movement in full swing, the Red Sox return to the playoffs. Boston's Wild Card opponent isn't set yet, as the Blue Jays and Yankees fight for the AL East pennant in the final games of the season.