
Ceddanne Rafaela was hopping mad about Sunday’s controversial call.
Rafaela was manning center field for the Boston Red Sox during Sunday’s game against the rival New York Yankees. In a scoreless fifth inning at Yankee Stadium in New York, N.Y., Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a rocket to right-center with a runner on first and nobody out.
A diving Rafaela appeared to catch the ball cleanly, and he then fired back into the infield to seemingly double off the runner at first base. But upon a challenge by the Yankees, the umpires ruled that Rafaela had not, in fact, made the catch, giving a base hit to Chisholm instead.
The umpires ruled this NOT a catch by Ceddanne Rafaela… what? pic.twitter.com/J6X2j4We0o
— NESN (@NESN) August 30, 2026
Here is a closer angle of the play.
Another angle of the Rafaela no catch pic.twitter.com/IiYXf3XD6y https://t.co/PFqypGeLAI
— Big League Digest (@BigLeagueDigest) August 30, 2026
The floodgates would open from there for the Yankees, and they ended up scoring five runs in that fifth inning to chase Red Sox starter Ranger Suarez by the sixth. New York then went on to beat Boston by a lopsided final score of 16-1.
After the game, Rafaela took to his Instagram Story to vent. He penned an angry post, including a screenshot of the play in question along with the caption, “HA HA HA it’s ok. It’s a man above that saw it.”
Ceddanne Rafaela on his IG story… clearly processing well pic.twitter.com/f5r2HDdZr4
— Matthew Crory (@matthewcrory) August 30, 2026
Of course, Rafaela’s post conveniently did not have the screenshot from a few frames later that showed the ball touching the grass before he had fully secured it. But perhaps Rafaela, who has himself been on the other end of fortunate bounces before, was just looking to blow off some steam online after Boston’s 15-run beatdown loss.
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