The Red Sox will look to win their 14th straight game as one of baseball’s hottest teams continues an improbable surge. Here’s how Boston assembled its longest winning streak in years and where it stands among the greatest runs in franchise history.
A win tonight over the Baltimore Orioles, who arrive at Fenway Park on a seven-game streak of their own, would push Boston within one victory of a franchise record untouched since 1946.
Boston’s streak, which rolled through a four-game weekend sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, already ties the 1948 Red Sox for the second-longest run in team annals, as tracked by MLB.com. The record of 15 wins was set in 1946, when a war-hardened Ted Williams returned from flying fighter planes and won AL MVP honors. That streak ended against the Yankees, and Boston’s season ended in heartbreak, too, losing Game 7 of the World Series on Enos Slaughter’s “Mad Dash.”
A 14-game streak, however, is not close to the top of the all-time MLB leaderboard. The 1916 New York Giants own the modern record at 26 games, the Cleveland Indians, now Guardians, ran off 22 in 2017, and the 1935 Chicago Cubs and 2002 Oakland Athletics rounded out the top four.
Red Sox Pitching Has Carried the Turnaround
Garrett Crochet’s absence from the rotation due to an April shoulder injury looked like it might sink Boston’s season. Instead, Connelly Early, Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez and Payton Tolle have turned a seemingly spotty staff into one of the American League’s steadiest, pushing Boston’s ERA into the sport’s top 10, as tracked by NESN’s Jake Mozarsky. Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez and Tolle have each posted an ERA below 3.15 with a strikeout rate over eight per nine innings in their first Boston seasons.
The bullpen has been just as vital. Aroldis Chapman already owns the all-time MLB relief strikeout record, a milestone reached in the middle of this stretch.
Boston’s team ERA of 3.53 now ranks fourth in the majors and second to the New York Yankees in the American League, a stunning reversal for a staff that looked thin in April.
Red Sox Bats and Standings Add Urgency
Willson Contreras has been the offensive centerpiece, an All-Star who’s slashing .285/.379/.542 with 20 home runs.
Wilyer Abreu hit two home runs in each of two straight games Friday and Saturday.
“It’s very fun right now. Playing like this is amazing,” Abreu said as quoted by Boston.com. “Everybody’s pushing together, pushing in the same way.”
Interim manager Chad Tracy has steered a club that sat at 29-43 in late June to a 50-48 record and sole possession of the American League’s third wild-card spot, half a game behind Cleveland for the second, as Boston pushed its winning streak to 13 Sunday. With the Aug. 3 trade deadline bearing down, every game now shapes how the front office views this roster.
Tracy isn’t looking past Baltimore, even with history on the line.
“It’s not time to look at the standings,” Tracy said, as quoted by Boston.com. “Our mindset should be who we face tomorrow.”
Why would he? Fourteen straight only ties his team for second. Fifteen would make the 2026 club a Red Sox legend.
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