Red Sox offense comes alive to end Twins' streak

MINNEAPOLIS -- With an offense like the Red Sox have, it was just a matter of time before the lineup had a breakout game. The latest came just in time to end a couple of long streaks.

Ceddanne Rafaela’s two-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Red Sox the lead, and they tacked on six more runs in the final two innings to run away with a 9-2 victory on Sunday at Target Field.

Vaughn Grissom and Dominic Smith each had two-run doubles in the eighth and Rafael Devers hit a two-run homer in the ninth as the Red Sox broke out of a three-game mini-slump in which they’d scored just four runs.

They’d also gone six games without a home run, all the way back to Rafaela’s seventh-inning blast against the Cubs last Saturday. That’s a span of 220 at-bats. It also helped snap the Twins’ 12-game winning streak, their longest since 1991.

“Losing two out of three sucks here, but winning this one is very gratifying,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It took a total team effort. The coaches did an outstanding job. Now it’s a happy flight and get ready for Atlanta.”

One of the biggest contributions by a coach came before the game, when hitting coach Pete Fatse took Rafaela onto the field for an old-fashioned game of pepper.

“He needs to find the barrel,” Cora said of Rafaela. “He’s such a good athlete that he will, he will find it. Just thinking outside the box. Most of the time he’s with the machine at 100 miles per hour. Today it was just a good old game of pepper with a hitting coach.”

Rafaela noted that the chance for one-on-one time and conversation with Fatse helped him relax and remember to have fun. And in the fifth inning, with Reese McGuire on third base and one out in a 1-1 tie, it paid off.

The count ran to 2-2 when Rafaela took a close pitch on the outside corner. (“It was a ball,” he insisted, perhaps a big sheepishly, after the game.) He got a low fastball on the next pitch and blasted it 398 feet to left-center for his third homer of the season, giving the Red Sox a 3-1 lead.

“I was just focusing to hit the ball, and good things happen,” he said of his approach to the at-bat.

McGuire got the winning rally started when he hit a single to center with one out in the fifth. He moved to second on an errant pickoff throw, then stole third. He initially was called out, but the Red Sox asked for a replay, which showed that McGuire’s hand hit the base before third baseman Jose Miranda’s tag was applied.

The Twins pulled their infield in again, but this time it didn’t matter. Rafaela took care of that.