Nine Straight Wins, and Somehow the Red Sox Have Pulled Us Back In

AP Photo//Frank Franklin II

There is no sensible way to follow the 2026 Boston Red Sox.

You can try. You can study the standings every morning, look for trends, convince yourself that the starting pitching has finally settled down or that the lineup is beginning to find its identity. You can declare that they have turned a corner.

Then, almost immediately, they drive directly back into the ditch.

Or, just when you’ve accepted that this probably isn’t their year, they win nine games in a row and drag themselves right back into the American League playoff conversation.

That’s where we are now.

The Red Sox entered the All-Star break Sunday afternoon by completing one of the most impressive road trips in franchise history. Boston beat the New York Mets, 3-2, in 10 innings at Citi Field, completing a three-game sweep and extending its winning streak to nine.

Nine games. Nine wins. All of them on the road.

The Red Sox finished the trip 9-0, something the franchise had accomplished only once before, from July 29 through August 7 in 1977. That team had names like Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Carlton Fisk scattered throughout the lineup. This version has spent much of the season trying to figure out who it is from one week to the next.

And yet, here they are.

Sunday’s win was probably the most appropriate way possible for this team to finish the first half. For eight innings, the Red Sox offense did almost nothing. Mets rookie Zach Thornton held them scoreless through seven, allowing only two hits, and Boston went to the ninth inning trailing 2-0.

It looked like the streak was over.

Not in some dramatic, heartbreaking fashion, either. It appeared the Red Sox were simply going to get shut down by a rookie pitcher and quietly head into the break with a very good 8-1 trip. Still impressive, sure, but also a little disappointing after getting that close to perfection.

Then the Mets helped open the door.

Francisco Lindor, who had driven in both New York runs, mishandled what could have become a game-ending double-play ball. Boston kept the inning alive. Andrew Monasterio worked a bases-loaded walk, Jarren Duran dropped a single into the outfield to tie the game and, suddenly, a game that had been lifeless for most of the afternoon was headed to extra innings.

Anthony Seigler’s sacrifice fly brought home Masataka Yoshida with the go-ahead run in the 10th. Garrett Whitlock retired the Mets in order in the bottom half, and that was it.

Road trip complete. Winning streak intact. Season revived. At least for now.

The Red Sox are now 46-48. That is still a losing record, which feels important to mention before we start planning the parade route. But they have won 14 of their last 16 games and 17 of their last 22. They went from being 14 games under .500 and seemingly headed toward another summer of trade speculation to sitting within a half-game of a Wild Card position.

How is this possible?

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure.

Maybe that is the best way to summarize the 2026 Red Sox. Every time we think we have them figured out, they become the opposite team.

They swept four games from the Yankees at Fenway Park from June 25 through June 28. Four straight wins against New York should have felt like a defining moment. The Red Sox played with energy, handled the pressure and briefly looked like the team many of us believed they could be before the season started.

Naturally, they followed that by losing two of three at home to the Washington Nationals.

Back to the same old, same old.

That series seemed to erase much of the excitement created by the Yankees sweep. It was another reminder that this team could play its best baseball against a division rival and then immediately stumble against an opponent it should have been able to beat.

That has been the problem all season. Not necessarily a lack of talent. Not even a lack of encouraging stretches.

A lack of consistency.

Consistency is not a word that belongs anywhere near the 2026 Red Sox. They have been streaky, frustrating, occasionally exciting and, every once in a while, genuinely terrible. They have looked like buyers, sellers and accidental contenders, sometimes within the same week.

Now they have won nine straight.

Beginning July 3, the Red Sox swept the Angels, swept the White Sox and swept the Mets. They didn’t return home once. They just kept traveling and winning.

There were comfortable victories along the way, including a 5-0 shutout of the White Sox and a 6-2 win in the Mets series opener. There were also games like Sunday, when they did almost nothing offensively for eight innings but still found a way to escape.

That might be the most encouraging part of the streak.

Earlier in the season, the Red Sox seemed to need everything to go correctly. They needed the starter to be strong, the defense to avoid mistakes and the lineup to produce enough early offense to keep the bullpen away from a high-pressure situation.

During this trip, they won in different ways.

They got starting pitching. They got timely hitting. They got important outs from the bullpen. They survived travel issues, close games and the normal complications of spending more than a week away from home. On Sunday, they took advantage of an opponent’s mistake, put together competitive at-bats and stole a game they probably had no business winning.

Good teams do that. Are the Red Sox a good team?

That remains the question.

A nine-game winning streak does not erase the first three months of the season. It does not fix every flaw on the roster or guarantee that the pitching will hold up through August and September. It certainly does not make the Red Sox equal to the best teams in baseball.

But it changes the conversation...Again.

A few weeks ago, the primary discussion was about who Boston should trade before the July 31 deadline. Which veterans had value? Which players belonged in the long-term plan? Would the front office finally admit that the season was slipping away?

Now chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has a much more complicated decision.

You cannot sell off meaningful pieces when the team is sitting inches outside a playoff position. Not after nine consecutive wins. Not after sweeping the Yankees and then producing a perfect road trip.

At the same time, it would be dangerous to overreact.

The Red Sox should not suddenly empty the farm system for a short-term rental because of one remarkable stretch. This roster still has holes. The club remains below .500, and the American League Wild Card race is crowded with teams that are flawed but very much alive.

The correct approach is probably somewhere in the middle.

Improve the team, but do it intelligently. Look for pitching help that can contribute beyond this season. Strengthen the roster without sacrificing the best young players in the organization. Give this group an opportunity to continue what it started without pretending it is one blockbuster away from becoming the favorite to win the World Series.

Because we should be honest about that, too.

Is there hope for a playoff spot?

Absolutely.

Are the Red Sox likely to enter October and make a deep run toward a championship?

Probably not.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Baseball has produced stranger postseason stories, and getting into the tournament is always the first requirement. A team with momentum, a few hot hitters and enough pitching can cause problems in a short series.

But this winning streak has not suddenly transformed Boston into a complete team. It has simply put the Red Sox back in position to matter.

And after the way much of this season has gone, that is no small thing.

I think I’ve finally accepted that this is how the rest of the year will probably continue. There will be excitement followed by disappointment, followed by another stretch that makes us believe again. The Red Sox may win six straight and then lose five of seven. They may climb into a Wild Card spot and fall back out before we’ve had time to enjoy it.

Wild ups and downs. Probably more frustration. Maybe a few more weeks like this one.

That is the deal with the 2026 Red Sox.

They are inconsistent. They are unpredictable. They are still under .500.

And somehow, after nine straight wins and a perfect road trip not seen in Boston in nearly half a century, they have pulled us back in again.

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