The Boston Red Sox needed a win to stay in the playoff hunt, and they didn’t leave anything up for debate Monday night against the Baltimore Orioles.

With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning, right fielder Rob Refsnyder blasted a two-run home run to straightaway center. One batter later, designated hitter Tyler O’Neill lifted a solo homer over the Green Monster.

The back-to-back home runs gave Boston a 4-1 lead, but it didn’t stop there. The Red Sox plated a few more runs thanks to Refsnyder and center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela, going up 10-3 through seven innings.

Refsnyder launched his second home run of the night in the eighth, this time sneaking a fly ball inside the right field foul pole. O’Neill matched that, crushing a 422-foot missile to center.

The pair’s second instance of back-to-back home runs cemented a 12-3 victory for Boston, making history in the process.

According to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, O’Neill and Refsnyder became just the second pair of teammates in Red Sox franchise history to hit back-to-back home runs twice in the same game. The other is Mo Vaughn and Tim Naehring, who did so on April 19, 1994.

O’Neill, Refsnyder and Rafaela combined to go 9-for-13 with five runs, 12 RBI and a walk in the win.

Refsnyder emerged as a solid backup outfielder for Boston in 2022, but his numbers took a step back across the board in 2023. He has returned to form here in 2024, racking up a career-high 11 home runs, 40 RBI and 1.0 WAR while batting .285 with an .836 OPS.

O’Neill, meanwhile, has been of the Red Sox’s most dangerous bats all season. The former St. Louis Cardinals standout is batting .260 with 29 home runs, 56 RBI, an .894 OPS and a 2.9 WAR despite hitting the injury list multiple times this year.

Those 29 bombs are good for the fifth-most home runs through a player’s first 100 games with the Red Sox, per director of media relations J.P. Long, and he has only played in 99 games so far. J.D. Martinez and Manny Ramirez had 32 apiece, Jimmie Foxx had 30 and Carl Everett had 29.

Monday also marked O’Neill’s seventh multi-home run game of 2024. As noted by Long, that is tied for the third-most in Red Sox single-season history.

Foxx owns the record, having done so 10 times in 1938, while David Ortiz achieved the feat nine times in 2005. O’Neill joins Manny Ramirez and Jim Rice as the only other Red Sox players with seven multi-home run performances in a year.

The Red Sox improved to 73-71 with the win Monday, leaving them 3.0 games back of the Minnesota Twins for the third and final AL Wild Card spot. FanGraphs is giving Boston an 11.1% chance of making the postseason, which is a step up from the 7.2% chance they had last Thursday.

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After a dominant 56-0 victory in their home opener against the Duquesne Dukes, the Eagles rose to No. 24 in this week’s AP Top 25. It’s the team’s first Top 25 appearance since week four of the 2018 season.

This marks an ideal start to the O’Brien era, especially noting how poor the ACC looks. Although it’s very early, BC looks like the clear second best team in the conference.

They have a unique opportunity to show themselves to be for real this weekend, traveling to Columbia, Missouri to face the sixth-ranked Tigers. Similar to week one against FSU, the Eagles open as a heavy road underdog – given just a 23-percent chance to knock off Missouri per ESPN’s Matchup Predictor.

They already have won this season in a spot like this one, so time will tell if Bill O’Brien can pull off another shocker on the road in one of the marquee matchups of the weekend.

How to Watch: Saturday, Sept. 14; 12:45 p.m. ET; SEC Network

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31 Days

BOSTON – A new New York Times-Siena College poll shows Donald Trump and Kamala Harris polling neck and neck for the presidency, a change following a Harris surge when she first became the nominee.

In particular, the poll shows lukewarm support for Harris among the youngest voters, those 18 to 29. “If you look over the last few election cycles, young voters have been a key voting block for Democratic candidates,” explained St. Anselm College political science professor Chris Galdieri. “Not just Joe Biden in 2020, but for Democratic candidates in the 2018 and 2022 midterms. So, I think the challenge for the Harris campaign is, can you continue that enthusiasm? Can you reach those voters and get them to do what they’ve done in the last few cycles?”

Ahead of the first Harris-Trump debate, WBZ spoke with college students in Boston about their plans this November.

Spectrum of enthusiasm among young voters

The large majority told WBZ they plan to vote for Kamala Harris, with one student saying he planned to vote for Donald Trump and a handful of others who were undecided.

And yet – there was a spectrum of enthusiasm among the young voters. “I feel pretty excited I would say,” Northeastern freshman Lucy Richardson said. “I feel like I think we need a female president.”

“I am just super excited to have a female president,” second year student Jordan Hedges agreed. “It’s time… I’m ready.”

However, many other students felt lukewarm about casting their ballot on November 5.

“I will say I like that I’m voting for Harris more than Biden now but I’m just not excited about our options. I’m not feeling great about it,” said second year Northeastern student Sophie. “It feels like a choice I get the better of two evils.”

When asked why, she elaborated that she’s disappointed in Kamala Harris’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. “It’s getting better but at the same time…I’m pro-Palestine and it’s not looking great right now,” Sophie said.

This statement was echoed by several other students, who voiced it as a reason they were reluctantly voting for Harris. “I’m just very anti-Trump which is the main reason I’m voting for her,” said graduate student Lauren Robles. “The whole genocide thing is definitely a kicker, but there’s not a lot of really great options,” she added.

“I feel like my generation is becoming more and more bold and saying like, ‘we don’t want to settle for things,’” explained political science student Geneva Palmer. When asked if “not settling” meant not voting, she said some students felt that way – though she plans to vote. “Politics is always going to be about compromising, unfortunately it’s kind of hard to see a future if we aren’t willing to make some concessions,” she explained.

“I think a lot of students feel like they are not happy with either candidate which I can agree with, but I think like also, we still have our duty to vote,” said second year Northeastern student Jacob Wojtowicz. The business and finance major plans to vote for Donald Trump for economic reasons. “I think there’s ups and downs, but when it comes to where our economy is going… I’d say, I lean more financially conservative.”

Young voters look for highlights on social media

WBZ also asked the students if they plan to watch the first debate between Trump and Harris as it airs live on television Tuesday night. Most said they would not watch live, instead looking for “the highlights” on social media.

The New York Times poll also revealed that social media is the number one single source for political news among voters with 19% using social media, trailed by network television and Fox News at 12% and 11% respectively.

The candidates and their campaigns have taken notice, becoming active on platforms like TikTok. The Harris campaign also began livestreaming their events in vertical video form to be more compatible for a cellphone audience. 

“I think, for a lot of younger folks, the main impact is not going to be from the debate itself, but from the aftermath of the debate,” Professor Galdieri told WBZ. “I think if the campaigns are smart, they will be working to get their spin of the debate – their best clips, their best moments from the debate on places like TikTok and Instagram and other places where you can find young voters.”

The debate starts at 9 p.m. eastern time on Tuesday, September 10.