Topps Now: July 11, 2025

Just prior to me making the post about the Rafael Devers trade, Ceddanne Rafaela endeared himself to me in a big way.

July 11, 2025

In a Friday night game against the Rays, Rafaela walked it off with a home run crushed over the Green Monster.  The Red Sox were down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning with Pete Fairbanks, who had not given up a homer all year, on the mound.  There was one out with Roman Anthony on base after a walk and Rafaela came up and launched the ball.  This card marks my first Rafaela card in the new green City Connect uniforms.  Boston has now had five walk-off wins in these uniforms.

Here's a few more Rafaelas just to keep things going.  This gets me above 100 cards, making him just the second current Red Sox player to be above 100 cards (Connor Wong is obviously the other one).  I grabbed the Sepia Stadium Club parallel after a guy I was trading with removed it from a deal.  That trade is coming.  I was a little confused as to why he decided to remove that card.  I made it clear I wanted all of the Rafaelas in it.  I will talk about that more in a few days.

Closing things out for today is a Connor Wong card.  I decided I needed to keep grabbing stuff as long as he was still in Boston.  And he has started playing a bit better.  Maybe he will stay around after all.