From Dead in June to the Bronx in October
The Boston Red Sox are going to the playoffs.
Go ahead and read that sentence again, because there were plenty of points this season when it looked about as likely as a relaxing drive through Boston during rush hour.
They’re in. Officially. Somehow.
Not because everything went according to plan. Almost nothing went according to plan. The manager was fired in April. Important players were injured. The offense vanished for long stretches. The pitching staff seemed to be held together with athletic tape, minor-league call-ups and positive thinking.
At one point in late June, the Red Sox had the worst record in the American League.
Now they are preparing for October.
Baseball is completely ridiculous.
The Red Sox clinched their second straight postseason appearance on Sunday after Atlanta beat Houston. Boston had already lost to Tampa Bay, 5-1, so the clinching moment arrived while the players were sitting in the visiting clubhouse rather than celebrating on the field. It wasn’t exactly a champagne-soaked Hollywood ending.
But honestly, that was probably the most appropriate way for this team to get in.
Nothing about the 2026 Red Sox has been normal.
They started 10-17, which led to the firing of Alex Cora and several members of his coaching staff. Chad Tracy took over as interim manager, presumably wondering if the word “interim” meant he could leave at any time without telling anyone.
The immediate turnaround didn’t happen. In fact, things got worse before they got better.
By late June, Boston had fallen to the bottom of the American League. The injuries kept piling up. Garrett Crochet was unavailable. Roman Anthony was hurt. The roster seemed to change every time you turned on the TV.
There were nights when watching the Red Sox felt less like watching a baseball team and more like checking the progress of a home renovation. You weren’t sure who was supposed to be there, nothing was finished and somebody new kept arriving with a toolbox.
Then, without warning, they started winning.
And winning.
And then winning some more.
The Red Sox put together a 15-game winning streak, tying the franchise record originally set in 1946. That is not a typo. A team that had been buried in June suddenly went nearly three weeks without losing a game.
They swept the Angels. They swept the White Sox. They swept the Mets. They swept the Rays. They beat the Yankees repeatedly, which made the whole thing considerably more enjoyable.
A season that looked completely lost became interesting. Then exciting. Then stressful, because the Red Sox had done the worst possible thing to their fans.
They gave us hope again.
The remarkable part is that this wasn’t simply the stars returning and saving the season. Some of the biggest contributions came from players who were not supposed to carry this team.
Caleb Durbin became one of the most important players in the lineup. Payton Tolle went from an intriguing young pitcher to someone who could legitimately start the first game of a playoff series. Jake Bennett provided meaningful innings. Anthony Seigler contributed before landing on the injured list.
Then there was Willson Contreras, who became the anchor of the offense and leads the team in home runs and RBIs. Unfortunately, even his season has included the required Red Sox amount of late-season injury anxiety. Contreras recently returned from a hamstring problem, then was hit on the hand in Texas and has been dealing with that - slowly.
Because apparently we are not allowed to enjoy anything without first reviewing an updated medical report.
Roman Anthony is back. Trevor Story is beginning to look more comfortable after surgery. Crochet and Tanner Houck are working their way through rehab assignments. The team may actually be getting healthier at the right time.
Or at least healthier-ish.
As I wrote last week, full strength is probably a myth. At this point the Red Sox would settle for “most of the important people can stand up on their own.”
The pitching presents the most interesting playoff questions.
Ranger Suárez, Sonny Gray and Tolle give Boston three legitimate starting options for a short series. Tolle has been especially impressive, including an immaculate inning against Kansas City on September 13. Nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts. Simple game, really. Why doesn’t everybody do that?
Brayan Bello also just delivered one of his best starts of the season, pitching eight innings and striking out 11 against Tampa Bay. He lost because the Red Sox scored one run, which is another long-standing Boston tradition: wasting a terrific pitching performance and then acting surprised about it.
The bullpen could be a real strength. Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman have both been excellent for most of the season, and Erik Miller gives Tracy another important late-inning option.
Of course, trusting a bullpen in October is like following GPS directions down an unmarked dirt road. It might get you home, but you’re questioning the decision with every turn.
Now comes the fun part.
If the current seeding holds, the Red Sox will open the postseason against the New York Yankees in the Bronx.
Of course they will.
After six months of injuries, managerial changes, winning streaks, losing streaks and daily emotional instability, the reward is a best-of-three series at Yankee Stadium. All three games, if necessary, would be played in New York.
That doesn’t sound especially relaxing. Although it does sound entertaining.
The Yankees will be favored, and they should be. They have the better record, home-field advantage and one of the best pitchers in the league in Cam Schlittler. Yankee Stadium in October is also not the easiest place for a young pitcher—or anyone with functioning ears—to remain calm.
But the Red Sox should not be intimidated by this matchup.
Boston has already shown that it can beat New York. More importantly, the Red Sox won’t enter the series carrying the same burden of expectations. The Yankees are supposed to advance. Another early exit would be treated in New York with the usual calm, measured response involving talk-radio screaming and calls to fire everyone.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, were sitting at the bottom of the American League less than three months ago.
They are playing with house money, even if the organization itself spent plenty of actual money building this roster.
Boston’s path to winning the series is fairly obvious. They need strong starting pitching, clean defense and enough offense to avoid asking the bullpen to protect a one-run lead for four innings every night.
Very complicated stuff.
The lineup does not need to score eight runs a game. It does, however, need to avoid those stretches when every hitter suddenly decides the strike zone extends from his ankles to the visiting dugout.
Contreras needs to be healthy enough to drive the ball. Anthony has to provide energy at the top of the order. Story needs to continue looking like the dangerous player he was before the injuries. Durbin, Ceddanne Rafaela and the rest of the lineup need to make the Yankees work.
And somebody—anybody—needs to get a hit with runners in scoring position before I begin negotiating severely with my TV.
The first-round format can actually help Boston. In a best-of-seven series, depth usually wins. In a best-of-three, almost anything can happen.
One dominant start changes everything. One bad inning can ruin an entire season. One unexpected home run can turn a bench player into a permanent part of Red Sox history.
That is the beauty and cruelty of the Wild Card Series. There is no time to recover from a slow start. You can’t lose two games while saying you’re still trying to “find your rhythm.” By the time you find it, the clubhouse attendants are collecting the uniforms.
Are the Red Sox good enough to beat the Yankees?
Absolutely.
Are they consistent enough to trust?
Absolutely not.
But consistency stopped being the point of this season a long time ago.
This team has been confusing, frustrating, wounded, exciting and occasionally impossible to watch. It also refused to disappear. When the season looked finished, the Red Sox produced one of the greatest winning streaks in franchise history. When injuries created holes, unexpected players filled them. When things began slipping again, they found enough wins to get across the line.
Not elegantly. Not comfortably. But they got there.
The 2026 Red Sox were never going to stroll into October looking like the most complete team in baseball. They have too many questions, too many scars and probably too many players receiving treatment before every game.
But they are in.
After everything that happened this season, that matters.
The Red Sox have survived long enough to reach the Bronx, where they will get a chance to make the Yankees—and the rest of us—very uncomfortable.
Maybe they’re not full strength.
Maybe they’re not completely ready.
Maybe none of that matters anymore.
It’s October. They have a seat at the table.
Now it's time to go ruin somebody else’s season.
Written by: Tim Hourihan
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