Ceddanne Rafaela makes Catch of the Year candidate to rob Diamondbacks HR
The Boston Red Sox are looking to rebound from their series opening loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Payton Tolle got tagged for five runs in three innings during his second career start. On Saturday, Boston handed the ball to Lucas Giolito. And while Arizona jumped out to an early 4-1 lead, it could have been worse.
Ceddanne Rafaela made an outrageous catch, robbing Corbin Carroll of a home run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Carroll crushed an 81-mph changeup to deep center. But Rafaela chased the ball down. He timed his leap, planted a foot in the wall and extended his glove over the fence to bring back a sure homer.
Ceddanne Rafaela continues clutch season for Red Sox
After making the catch, Rafaela remained on his knees for several seconds, leading the broadcast team to believe he hurt himself. But it just added to the drama as he eventually popped up and tossed the ball back to the infield, revealing he made the catch.
Rafaela has made his share of incredible defensive plays in a Gold Glove-caliber campaign. However, Saturday’s remarkable snare is a clear Catch of the Year candidate.
The wild grab prevented Carroll from going deep in back-to-back games against the Red Sox. He had a big night in the Diamondbacks’ 10-5 victory Friday, belting his 30th homer of the season and driving in three runs.
In addition to his dominant defense in center field, Rafaela has been clutch at the plate this season. The third-year pro has a career-high 16 home runs and 75 runs scored in 136 games. He’s also added 19 stolen bases.
The Red Sox are trying to avoid a three-game skid after winning seven of nine contests. Boston entered 4.5 games back in the AL East with a 4.5-game lead in the Wild Card standings.
Yankees still adjusting to their new Aaron Judge right field situation after weak throw
The Yankees are still trying to figure out how to best use Aaron Judge in right field.
And the short, soft throw Judge made to Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a two-run single in the first inning in his return to right Friday is something the Yankees may have to get accustomed to — at least for the time being.
Asked prior to Saturday’s 3-1 win over the Blue Jays if that throw was what the Yankees should expect from Judge in the early going, Aaron Boone said, “Right now [it is]. We worked [on it] the last couple of weeks. If you guys were paying attention, we worked on different creative cuts and stuff like that. We’ll continue to do that and hopefully evolve it as we go.”
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) catches a fly out by Toronto Blue Jays second base Andrés Giménez (0) during the fourth inning on September 5, 2025 at Yankee Stadium.
If that’s the case, Chisholm will likely be expected to go deeper into right field on balls hit to Judge with runners on base.
And that play was part of an unsteady return to the position in the loss to Toronto after Judge hadn’t played the field since suffering a right elbow flexor strain July 25.
Judge was at DH on Saturday (1-for4, strikeout), which was by design, according to Boone.
“That was kind of the plan,’’ Boone said of Judge at DH and Giancarlo Stanton out of the lineup after he was the DH on Friday. “Then we’ll see what [Sunday] brings. Having [Stanton] down today, both could be an option at DH and the other in right field [Sunday]. We’ll get through today and see.”
Aaron Judge was back in right field on Friday night.
New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge (99) plays right field during the first inning when the New York Yankees played the Toronto Blue Jays on September 5, 2025.
But the Yankees still intend to use Judge in right on a fairly regular basis, even after Toronto manager John Schneider acknowledged the obvious following Friday’s game when he said the Blue Jays “wanted to test” Judge’s arm when they sent Daulton Varsho home and he scored from second on Nathan Lukes’ two-out single to right.
Boone said that approach would “not necessarily” impact how they use Judge on defense.
“It’s gonna be based on how he’s doing, and hopefully, as we go, he has continued improvements,” Boone said. “We’re playing the long game on it. The reality is, when he’s out there, he brings a lot of value.”
But Judge is clearly not at full strength and the Yankees can’t predict when that might change.
“We’ll see as we go,” Boone said. “We’ll be smart along the way.”
