Wednesday was shaping up to be a night Ceddanne Rafaela would have preferred to forget.

Earlier in the evening Rafaela uncharacteristically came up empty on a diving attempt, allowing an RBI double to fall in and nearly hurting his wrist in the process. Then in the bottom of the seventh he and Jarren Duran tracked down a deep fly-ball at the warning track, but nobody called for the ball, allowing it to fall in and the go-ahead run to score.

Fortunately, Rafaela made the most of his last opportunity to make things right.

Trailing by one with a man on in the top of the ninth, Rafaela went deep for a two-run home run in Wednesday’s stunning 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

Roman Anthony also homered in the win, and Brayan Bello delivered his latest gem to help the Red Sox improve to 6-1 on the road trip.

Boston will now have a chance to complete the four-game sweep on Thursday.

Anthony wasted no time putting the Red Sox on top, hitting a solo home run to start things off for his seventh homer of the season and his second leadoff shot in three games.

It was also Anthony’s fifth home run in his last 15 games after hitting just two in his first 50 following his big league call-up.

That turned out to be the only offense the Red Sox could muster for a while, but fortunately Bello was dialed in again.

Coming off an outstanding start in New York where he tossed seven shutout innings, Bello was brilliant once again. He was highly efficient, throwing 18 pitches or fewer in each inning, and the only damage the Orioles could manage against the righty until the seventh came in the second when Colby Mayo singled, advanced to second on a passed ball and scored on an RBI double by Dylan Beavers.

Beyond the passed ball, Bello also got unlucky when Rafaela couldn’t come up with a diving catch on the Beavers liner. Rafaela twisted his wrist on the diving attempt and was slow to get up, but he remained in the game and hit a double his next time at the plate.

The Orioles got brilliant performances on the mound by opener Dietrich Enns and bulk man Roansy Contreras, who combined to allow one run on five hits over seven-plus innings of work. The Red Sox only struck out five times against the pair, but they also drew only one walk and at one point had a stretch where the minimum 11 batters stepped to the plate between the fourth and seventh innings

The only Red Sox batter to reach base over that stretch was David Hamilton, who singled in the fifth and was immediately caught stealing.

Bello should have finished with one run allowed over seven innings, but he caught another bad break with two outs when Dylan Carlson hit a deep fly-ball to the warning track. Duran and Rafaela both had a chance to make the catch, but neither called for the ball and it wound up falling in for an RBI double.

Bello’s final line wound up being two runs (one earned) allowed over 6 2/3 innings, with five hits, one walk and six strikeouts. It was his third consecutive quality start and his 15th of the season in 23 starts.

The Red Sox finally broke through against Contreras in the eighth, getting a leadoff walk from Connor Wong before Hamilton singled to put runners at the corners with no outs. That prompted the Orioles to go to left-hander Keegan Akin, who held the Red Sox scoreless by striking out Anthony and Alex Bregman and forcing Trevor Story into a groundout to short.

At that point the Red Sox were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, and it felt as if the game was going to be a repeat of last Tuesday’s 4-3, 11 inning loss to Baltimore where Boston went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position.

Rafaela had other ideas.

Duran hit a leadoff single to put the tying run on, and Rafaela immediately took Akin deep to left field for the go-ahead shot. Once up the Red Sox never looked back, as All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman took the mound for the bottom of the ninth and sent the Orioles down 1-2-3 for his 26th save of the season.

With that, the Red Sox (74-60) improved to a season-high 14 games over .500. The club will take a three-game winning streak into Thursday’s series finale, with Garrett Crochet (14-5, 2.38) set to face Cade Povich (2-7, 5.13).

Tolle latest

Top Red Sox pitching prospect Payton Tolle could potentially earn a big league call-up before the end of the season, but his MLB debut likely won’t come this weekend.

Wednesday the WooSox announced that Tolle will pitch in Friday’s game against the Durham Bulls, either as that day’s starter or in a piggyback role after Shane Drohan. If that plan holds, it would presumably take Tolle out of the running to start Saturday’s game at Fenway Park.

Left-hander Kyle Harrison, one of the players acquired in the Rafael Devers trade, is the most likely candidate to take the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Red Sox currently have a vacancy in their rotation after Walker Buehler was moved to the bullpen and Richard Fitts went on the 15-day injured list.

Tolle has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Red Sox system since being drafted in the second round last summer. The 22-year-old lefty has climbed from High-A to Triple-A in his first professional season and has a 3.04 ERA with 133 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings overall. He’s continued to dominate ever since reaching Triple-A, and since allowing two home runs in the first inning of his debut he’s given up just one run in his last 14 innings.

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