Last year Ceddanne Rafaela was the story of spring training. The fast-rising prospect played in nearly every Grapefruit League game and eventually earned himself a spot on Boston’s big league roster.

This year Rafaela has flown under the radar by comparison, but the second-year outfielder has made considerable strides and Saturday turned in his most promising performance yet.

Rafaela went 3 for 3 with three RBI and a run scored in Boston’s 8-4 win over the Minnesota Twins, including a go-ahead RBI double in the bottom of the fourth and a two-run single in the fifth.

The last hit was particularly noteworthy, as Rafaela fell behind 1-2 in the count before laying off two pitches low and outside. Last season Rafaela almost always swung at pitches like those, and the result was usually either a strikeout or a weak ground ball. This time his patience paid off, as Rafaela got a much better look on a 3-2 pitch and was able to knock it up the middle to drive in a pair of runs.

Rafaela is now 5 for 11 (.455) through five games with a double, a home run, two walks and no strikeouts. The walks are almost the most encouraging stat of the bunch considering Rafaela only drew 15 all of last season, with none over his last 39 games and 142 plate appearances.

Wong, Gonzalez debut

Two Red Sox mainstays made their Grapefruit League debuts on Saturday, with catcher Connor Wong and Romy Gonzalez getting into game action for the first time this spring.

Wong has been limited by a sore shoulder but started at catcher and went 1 for 2 with a solo home run in the bottom of the second. He remained in the game for five innings before giving way to Carlos Narvaez in the sixth.

Gonzalez, who has ramped up slowly this spring, started at designated hitter and went 2 for 4 with a run scored.

In addition, Masataka Yoshida has been cleared for game action as a designated hitter and is expected to make his Grapefruit League debut on Sunday. The plan is for Rafael Devers to get into his first game action later this week, potentially as soon as Wednesday.

Big day for Story

Trevor Story enjoyed one of his best days of the spring at the plate on Saturday, going 2 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI double in the bottom of the third. Story is batting .333 with an .833 OPS through his first four games.

Alex Bregman got the start at third base again and went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice fly and a walk. Triston Casas went 1 for 2 with a walk and a run, and Jarren Duran went 1 for 3.

Houck lays out

It’s not every day you see established big league starting pitchers making diving plays at the first base bag during spring training, but that’s exactly what Tanner Houck did to wrap up his day on Sunday.

With two outs in the top of the third inning, Houck fielded a grounder from Harrison Bader and laid out to tag the first base bag just ahead of the runner to end the inning.

Houck finished his day with two runs allowed over three innings, including three hits, no walks and no strikeouts.

Bullpen delivers

After a pretty rocky showing on Friday, the Red Sox bullpen was much crisper in Saturday’s win. Five of the club’s big league contenders combined for two runs (both unearned) over the final six innings.

Aroldis Chapman started his outing with back-to-back walks before coming back with two strikeouts to post a scoreless frame. Justin Wilson struck out two in a scoreless fifth, and in the sixth Justin Slaten was victimized by an error on what would have been the third out of the inning, leading to former Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez’s subsequent two-run single.

Cooper Criswell pitched two scoreless innings with one hit and two strikeouts, and Luis Guerrero wrapped up the day with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth. Guerrero has now posted three straight scoreless outings to begin his spring, with six strikeouts, one walk and one hit allowed through three innings.

Coming up next

New Red Sox right-hander Walker Buehler is scheduled to make his first start of the spring on Sunday against the New York Mets at JetBlue Park. He will be followed out of the bullpen by Brennan Bernardino, Liam Hendriks, Zack Kelly, Greg Weissert, Isaiah Campbell, Austin Adams and Wyatt Mills.