Ceddanne Rafaela smacked his first career grand slam and the scorching Boston Red Sox won for the 18th time in 20 games, beating the Athletics 4-2 on Monday in West Sacramento, Calif.

Payton Tolle (6-6) struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings for the Red Sox. He gave up two runs and five hits and one walk.

Boston’s Aroldis Chapman worked out of a ninth-inning jam for his 25th save in 27 opportunities.

Chapman gave up a single to Colby Thomas to start the ninth before striking out Tommy White. Chapman then engaged in a 10-pitch battle with pinch hitter Nick Kurtz and appeared to have won it with a potential game-ending double-play grounder. However, Boston second baseman Anthony Seigler booted the ball and both runners were safe.

Chapman then fanned Henry Bolte and Alika Williams to close it out.

Tyler Soderstrom and Jonah Heim homered for the Athletics, who lost for the 24th time in their past 30 games. Thomas had two hits.

Boston’s Justin Slaten recorded the final two outs of the sixth, Jovani Moran struck out two in a perfect seventh, and Garrett Whitlock worked a flawless eighth.

A’s starter Jack Perkins (2-6) was charged with two runs and one hit over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked three.

Perkins didn’t give up a hit before Connor Wong began the sixth inning with a double into the left field corner. Perkins retired the next two batters before walking Willson Contreras.

Jose Suarez entered and walked Wilyer Abreu to load the bases. Rafaela then swatted a 2-0 slider high in the air to left. Thomas leaped and the ball went off his glove and hit the netting behind the fence for a homer as Boston took a 4-1 lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Heim drilled a leadoff homer to center off Tolle.

The A’s got on the board in the bottom of the first when Soderstrom hit a one-out homer to left.

Boston’s Curtis Mead made his team debut but left prior to the bottom of the fifth due to a left wrist contusion. He was hit by a pitch from Perkins in the top of the fourth. Mead was acquired from the Washington Nationals for left-hander Connelly Early on Sunday.

Athletics All-Star catcher Shea Langeliers will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee on Tuesday. He could be done for the season.

–Field Level Media

Alex Bregman and Nico Hoerner each homered and had four hits apiece as the visiting Chicago Cubs opened a four-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7-3 win on Monday.

Bregman doubled twice and drove in two runs and Hoerner had four RBIs for Chicago, which tallied 14 hits and won for the third time in its last four games. Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya added two hits apiece.

David Peterson (6-7) allowed two runs on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

Jose Fermin hit a solo homer and Masyn Winn had two hits for St. Louis, which has lost eight of its 11 games coming out of the All-Star break.

After the start of the game was delayed 1 hour and 46 minutes due to rain, the Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back doubles by Seiya Suzuki and Bregman against Matthew Liberatore (5-8).

With two runners on and one out in the second inning, Amaya added to Chicago’s lead with a run-scoring single to right field.

Fermin put the Cardinals on the board with a two-out solo homer in the bottom of the second. The 407-foot blast was Fermin’s fifth homer of the season.

Bregman began the third inning by depositing Liberatore’s first offering into the right-field seats for his 11th homer of the season.

Liberatore allowed three runs on eight hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out five.

The Cubs extended their lead to 5-1 in the fifth inning. Bregman and Kelly hit consecutive singles and both scored on Hoerner’s one-out single.

Gavin Hollowell replaced Peterson with a runner on second and two outs in the sixth. Winn greeted Hollowell with a run-scoring single, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Bryan Torres’ ground-rule double.

The Cubs added to their lead in the ninth when Hoerner hit a two-run blast for his fifth homer of the season and first since April 21.

–Field Level Media

Brandon Lowe’s single in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Billy Cook and propelled the host Pittsburgh Pirates to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.

The Pirates drew even with the Diamondbacks for the final National League wild-card spot, dealing Arizona its third loss in a row.

Lowe’s game-winner off Diamondbacks reliever Taylor Clarke (2-2) was a liner that got past first baseman Ildemaro Vargas. Lowe finished with three hits and two RBIs.

Endy Rodriguez, who was activated from the 10-day injured list pregame after recovering from a left glute strain, singled to right to open the 10th, putting runners on the corners with no outs.

Jake Mangum grounded to second base, and Billy Cook was caught in a rundown between third and home. But Cook bought enough time and made it back to third just as Rodriguez did, resulting in one out, but ensuring the Pirates still had a runner at third.

Max Kepler had three hits, drove in the Diamondbacks’ two runs and had a chance to give Arizona the lead in the top of the 10th. However, with the bases loaded and two outs, Kepler lined out to center against reliever Mason Montgomery (4-3).

Montgomery also struck out Gabriel Moreno two batters prior after Arizona had put runners on second and third with one out.

Bryan Reynolds knotted the game at 2 in the bottom of the eighth with a two-out RBI double to score Lowe, who doubled in the prior at-bat. The clutch hit came moments after Pirates manager Don Kelly was ejected by third base umpire Ben May after arguing a check-swing call during Reynolds’ at-bat.

The teams were locked in a scoreless stalemate until Kepler’s two-run double with the bases loaded put the Diamondbacks in front in the top of the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth, Mangum scored on a single by Lowe to cut Arizona’s lead to 2-1.

Pittsburgh’s hot-hitting rookie Esmerlyn Valdez was struck by a 91.4 mph fastball from Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly on his left hand and exited the game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Valdez has 14 home runs in his first 38 career games.

–Field Level Media