OAKLAND, Calif. — In the bottom of the 10th inning when it seemed the Red Sox’ sealed fate would end in a loss, manager Alex Cora came out near the first base line and flipped an infield glove to Ceddanne Rafaela. The Sox had one out in the frame, and the Athletics were threatening with runners on first and third. Ryan Noda, the runner at third, represented the winning run. So, Cora called for a five-man infield, summoning Rafaela from the center field grass to the dirt. Cora figured that if a ball was hit up the middle, Rafaela would be there, and they could turn a double play, perhaps saving the game. Advertisement Though capable, Rafaela’s real magic happens in the outfield. That’s where he’s the most prolific. That’s why he’s here, in Oakland on a 54 degree night, and not at Worcester. Winckowski would wiggle out of trouble, keeping the game knotted at four apiece. The Sox plated the go-ahead run in the 11th when Tyler O’Neill grounded out into a double play that scored a run. But Shea Langeliers was at the plate for the A’s in the 11th with the automatic runner on second, and he already had a homer on the day. Winckowski, ahead 0-1 in the count, went to a 96 mile-per-hour sinker. Langeliers launched it toward the gap in center. This is when the Rafaela magic happened. The ball sliced through the dimly lit Coliseum, where the attempt to keep darkness out always falls short. It left Langeliers’s bat at 97 mph. That didn’t matter. Rafaela, running at full speed, had it the entire way. He hauled it in for the second out of the inning. Winckowski then struck out Lawrence Butler, cementing a Sox win. “I had a pretty good jump,” said Rafaela afterward. “I think that’s why I made the catch. In my mind, everything that’s in the park I have to catch it.” Advertisement “From my end, I knew he had it the whole time,” said Cora. Ceddanne Rafaela saves the night! pic.twitter.com/BZW98qqAN8 To get to that point, the Sox were led by Trevor Story who went 3 for 5 with two RBIs and leadoff hitter Jarren Duran was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a stolen base. With the Sox trailing, 4-3, in the seventh, Story punched his second hit of the contest, a broken-bat single through the right side, to bring home Duran. “He’s been good,” said Cora. “He had some tough at-bats against good pitching. That’s something that he did in spring training, trying to catch up with the fastball. He’s been able to do that.” Brayan Bello had one of his worst starts last summer when he pitched against the Athletics at Rickey Henderson Field. He had been on a roll, yielding three runs or less across his previous 11 starts. Yet the A’s pounded the righthander for six runs in just four innings, aided by three homers. His second career start at the ballpark wasn’t his best either, but Bello didn’t let this one unravel. The offense fronted him a pair of runs over the first two innings Tuesday night, both coming with two outs. Story split the left-center field gap in the first inning for an RBI double off Oakland starter Alex Wood. Then in the second, Duran laced an RBI single to left-center for the 2-0 lead. Advertisement In the home half of the second, Bello became a bit predictable with his
Arsenal. J.D. Davis lined a double to right field on a Bello sinker on the outer half of the plate. The pitcher and catcher Connor Wong decided to ditch the fastball, employing just the slider and changeup mix. Bello induced a Seth Brown ground out to first on a changeup that moved the runner to third. The next batter, Brent Rooker, didn’t even see a changeup, as Bello tossed four consecutive sliders and got swings and misses on three for the strikeout. Subsequently, Bello fell behind, 2 and 0, to Langeliers before inducing a chase on the changeup. On his next offering, Bello tried to spin a slider that backed up, and Langeliers clipped him for a game-tying two-run homer. It was Bello’s 11th straight pitch that was either a slider or changeup. The Sox immediately got the lead back behind Pablo Reyes’s RBI single in the third inning. But Bello coughed up the lead when J.J. Bleday clobbered a changeup that stayed middle over the right-field wall for another A’s homer. “It was an OK outing for me,” Bello said through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benitez. “I got a chance to go out there and learn.” What was also learned, or reminded, however, is Rafaela’s electrifying ability. His game-changing magic. “I was watching it turn and kind of keep going to right-center even farther and farther away from Rafaela,” said Winckowski. “And the fact that he caught it was unbelievable " Advertisement Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com . Follow him @byJulianMack .