PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – After a 5-2 victory in their exhibition game with the Northeastern Huskies on Friday, the Red Sox opened the official Grapefruit League campaign with a 6-4 road win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday afternoon.

Boston never trailed, holding a 4-1 lead until the bottom of the seventh when Tampa Bay came back to tie the game. The Rays out-hit their guests 9-7, but were ultimately unable to overcome their visitors, who regained the lead with two runs in the ninth.

The Red Sox had opportunities to put the game well out of reach. They drew five walks and had two additional base-runners via hit-by-pitch, but went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

A solo home run by Ceddanne Rafaela and two-run blasts by Trayce Thompson and Tyler Miller made the difference. Rafaela’s round-tripper in the third was the first by any Red Sox player this year.

“Even if it’s a spring training game, we treat it as (if) we’re playing (real) baseball,” said Rafaela of how good it felt to go yard in Game No. 1.

Rafaela was even happier with his next at-bat, though. He spent the winter working at Team Sosa, the training mecca in Hialeah, Fla. frequented by former Red Sox slugger, J.D. Martinez. Rafaela’s one-out walk in the fifth was his first in-game evidence that his new offseason program is paying off.

“Drawing that walk and swinging at better pitches, it felt better (than the home run),” he said. “(This offseason) was more of getting my body in a better position to swing at better pitches, not only working pitch recognition. I think if I do that only, I’m not going to be in a good position to swing at good pitches. I think that’s the most important part: get my body in a good position so I can see the ball better.”

Boston’s ‘Big 3’ played on Saturday, with Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer in the starting lineup at left-field and designated hitter, respectively. Kristian Campbell, who started the day before, subbed in for Vaughn Grissom at second base in the sixth.

All three prospects got on base at least once. Batting second in the order, Anthony was hit by a pitch in his first at-bat of the year. He collected his first hit in the top of the sixth, a two-out single. Campbell drew a walk in the seventh.

Mayer impressed at the plate for the second afternoon in a row. After recording the first Red Sox hit of the year the day before (a two-out single in the first), Mayer got Boston on the board in the top of the first with a two-out single to score David Hamilton, who led off the game with a walk and stolen base. Mayer also looked like he had a deep outfield hit in the seventh, but Rays center-fielder Chandler Simpson made a rolling dive for a successful robbery.

“It was just fun to get back into games,” said Sox starter Quinn Priester, who spent the offseason adding a cutter to his pitch mix and bulking up. “Definitely feels like I’ve got a little bit more weight and mass down on the mound, that’s for sure.”

“Physically, he’s a monster now,” said manager Alex Cora. “He’s a lot stronger.”

The game held some deja vu for the ‘24 trade deadline acquisition, who made his Red Sox debut against the Rays on the final day of last season. Four of the Rays from that game’s starting nine were back in the lineup on Saturday: Richie Palacios, Jonathan Aranda, Jonny DeLuca, and Jose Caballero.

Like last year, the Rays did very little against Priester. He finished his two-inning start charged with one earned run on two hits and a walk. The run in question was catcher Danny Jansen’s solo homer, which tied the game in the bottom of the second. Jansen, a fellow ‘24 Sox deadline addition, joined the Rays on a one-year, $8.5 million deal with a mutual option for ‘26.

“That kind of happens always, right, the guy that was with us goes to another place and he rakes against us,” Cora joked. “But all kidding aside, it was a good day overall.”

Luis Guerrero, Michael Fulmer, Jose Adames, Robert Stock, Yovanny Cruz, and Shane Drohan pitched the rest of the way. Guerrero worked around a walk and struck out three in the third, and Fulmer worked around three hits and a walk in his 1 ⅔ frames.

The Rays scored their three runs off Cruz, who gave up four hits and blew the save before getting out of the seventh inning.

Drohan pitched the final two frames, working around a leadoff runner who reached an infield throwing error in the eighth, and getting the Rays in order to close out the ninth.

The Red Sox play their first Grapefruit League home game on Sunday, with left-hander Garrett Crochet starting against the Toronto Blue Jays.