The Red Sox Saved Their Season With Recent Hot Stretch

The last time Boston Red Sox fans saw a hot streak like this, the most popular teens were jamming to an upstart young singer named Frank Sinatra. And it’s fitting that, 80 years later, the Red Sox are winning their way.

With a combination of breakout bats, bunts, pitching excellence, and sheer luck, the Red Sox recently won 15 consecutive games. They have gone 20-3 since June 25. In the process, the team has leapfrogged its way into a Wild Card spot and is threatening the stalwart Rays and Yankees at the top of the division.

After the Red Sox lost to the Rockies on June 24, they were 32-46, good for fifth in the AL East. If you had walked into Fenway boasting about the team’s playoff chances at that point, you would have been laughed out of Massachusetts.

This raises the question… what changed? The Red Sox did not make a major splash on the trade market, merely adding Jahmai Jones, who the Tigers no longer wanted on their major league roster. If anything, the Red Sox lost players, with All-Stars Ranger Suárez and Willson Contreras both sidelined at different points during this stretch.

Here are the most critical factors that contributed to Boston’s success.

Offensive Turnaround

In the last 23 games, the Red Sox had six hitters with a wRC+ over 100, though one of them, Jones, only played in four games. However, Contreras, Masataka Yoshida, and Andruw Monasterio (as well as Jones) all had an OPS over 1.000 in this stretch. Wilyer Abreu was recently named AL Player of the Week after homering four times in two games against Tampa Bay. Caleb Durbin has completely turned his season around.

That being said, the Red Sox did not have a highly touted offense at the start of the season. Since then, they’ve replaced Roman Anthony, Trevor Story, and Marcelo Mayer with Jones, Tsung-Che Cheng, and Anthony Seigler.

Story and Mayer are preparing for rehab assignments soon, but a major part of the win streak has simply been these other pieces filling their roles. Jones and Cheng were two players DFA’d by their former teams who have found a home in Boston. Seigler was the forgotten piece in a trade containing names like Durbin and Kyle Harrison.

With a lineup of scrappy underdogs, the Red Sox have survived with small ball and thrived with more offensive firepower than they’ve seen all season long.

Chad Tracy’s Whitey Herzog Impression

Chicks may dig the long ball, but Chad digs a good bunt. During this 20-3 stretch, the Sox led the league in sacrifice hits and sacrifice flies and ranked second in bunts. While the Sox still had their fair share of home runs, Tracy’s managerial style is often more reminiscent of Whitey Herzog than Alex Cora.

In many ways, the Red Sox roster is built to play Whiteyball thanks to its defensive prowess. Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, and Jarren Duran have combined for 45 DRS in the outfield. Caleb Durbin has 10 DRS at third base. On top of this, injury replacements like Tsung-Che Cheng have flashed the leather with several ninth-inning plays during Boston’s winning streak.

Tsung-Che Cheng: ATHLETE pic.twitter.com/ZAeNjdbv8a

— NESN (@NESN) July 18, 2026

Since June 25, the Red Sox have also stolen 17 bases in 23 games, tied for ninth-most among teams in that span. While their eight caught stealings have been higher than Tracy would like, this aggressive approach on the basepaths remains a signature part of this new small-ball Sox team.

Pitchers Exceeding Expectations

Boston’s newest elite reliever is a 35-year-old who had -1.7 career bWAR and hadn’t pitched in MLB since 2019. Now he’s touching 102. Another pitcher who hadn’t thrown in two years due to injury tossed 4.1 frames of one-run ball in his first start back. And a rookie who was seen as a No 5 starter has been throwing like an ace. These outcomes have defined the Red Sox’s turnaround.

Tyron Guerrero had an ERA north of 6.00 in Japan’s Pacific League last season. The Red Sox saw something in him, however, and it has paid dividends. After pitching to a sub-1.00 ERA across 15 appearances in Worcester, Guerrero was promoted to the major leagues and has been lights out ever since.

Patrick Sandoval was a bit of a wild card when the Red Sox signed him to a two-year deal, knowing that he’d likely only play in one of those seasons. His first two starts were a mixed bag, but 4.1 one-run innings in the first showed solid command and movement on his pitches. The second start was more of a struggle, though he remarked on Instagram that he did not “contribute to the group project but still [got] an A+.”

Jake Bennett was recalled, sent down, and recalled again. In his second stint in Boston, he has flashed signs that he may never be sent down again. In his last five starts, Bennett has pitched 32.2 innings, giving up just six earned runs. He was the winning pitcher in all five games. He doesn’t rack up strikeouts, but his opponents have struggled to hit the ball hard, instead sending soft contact right toward the defense behind him.

Sheer Luck

There is no win streak this long that can’t be attributed, in some part, to sheer luck. On June 12, the New York Mets had a 94.4% chance of winning after the Red Sox went 1-2-3 in the eighth inning. Down two in the ninth with one out and a runner on first, a routine double-play ball came to Platinum Glover Francisco Lindor, who bobbled it, with the Red Sox eventually winning in 10 innings.

Before this winning streak, the Red Sox struggled mightily when trailing late in games. This has turned around in a major way. The Red Sox had not overcome a three-run deficit to win a game until Saturday’s contest against the AL-best Rays, when a 6-3 Rays lead became a 7-6 Red Sox win.

The offense has certainly improved in nearly every aspect, but it’s more than an improvement in the third inning; it’s an improvement in the team’s clutch factor. Sure, Durbin and Monasterio have looked like different versions of themselves in July, but it’s been a full team effort.

From the start of the season through June 24, Boston ranked 29th in Major League Baseball with a clutch score of -3.98, ahead of only the New York Mets. That means they were much, much worse in high-leverage situations.

Ever since, Boston’s clutch factor has not just been good. In fact, it’s not just been the best. It is miles ahead of any other team’s. In that span, the Red Sox have a 4.27 clutch score, according to FanGraphs. The Detroit Tigers are second with a 1.54 clutch.

Is this an insane stretch of luck and timely hitting? Is it a small-ball method to drawing in just enough runs? Is it even sustainable? While Tracy mentioned postgame on Wednesday night that players were feeding off the energy of the win streak, it’s surely impossible to sustain a clutch factor nearly three times better than that of any other team.

Playoff Odds

After Boston’s loss on June 24, its playoff odds, per FanGraphs, stood at 9.4%. Its World Series odds were a glimmer of hope at best, at 0.5%. After the win streak, these odds have skyrocketed to 61.3% and 3.3%, respectively.

In this stretch, the team’s projected final win total has also changed, rising from 75.1 to 83.0. A team that was one of the worst in all of baseball a month ago is now a playoff favorite with a legitimate shot at the American League pennant.