Have you seen Dune: Part Two?
Excellent picture; that and its predecessor are both well worth your time. I feel like I’m a bit of a Dune fraud since I haven’t read the books, but Denis Villeneuve’s series has been awesome so far. I digress.
In the sequel, without giving too much away, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) takes some cool ass liquid and begins to gain the power to clearly identify countless outcomes to future events. That clairvoyance makes him realize that while his odds of victory (again,
to keep things general) are slim, there is one pathway that he and his allies can take to achieve their goals.
In other news, the Yankees suck.
It’s Monday Morning Brushback time, y’all.
………They couldn’t possibly, right?
The 2026 Boston Red Sox season has been catastrophic from the word “go.” The won the very first game of the season in Cincinnati, dropped the second game of the opening series against the Reds to drop back down to .500, and then proceeded to fail to get back to .500 from game number three on. Guys have gotten hurt, fired, called up, sent down, and straight up roasted by some members of the fan base during that entire time, all while Boston’s gap from .500 remains double-digits as we begin the week of this nation’s 250th birthday.
Throughout that time, there’s been one refrain that Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has continued to share with the media, fans, and anyone else that would continue to listen to him. His idea is that all these Red Sox have to do – the team with statistically one of the worst offenses in the league (though a really good pitching staff, to keep everything fair) while playing half of its game at a hitter’s paradise, the team that experienced about 25 hours above .500 this season (not a typo; I did the math on it) is going to go on a run. The illusive, wonderful, dare I say mythical run is the thing that can fix all of this. The roster, he believes, is still good enough to compete in spite of the record; he thinks it’s just a matter of getting the motor up and running (or whatever platitude you wanna use).
I’m sure you’ve seen those comments made by Breslow in recent weeks, but just in case you need the proof: instances of The Magical Run being referenced can be found here, here, here, and here.
In recent weeks, the more I’ve heard or read these types of comments from Breslow, the more and more I’ve felt like I’ve been taking crazy pills.
Granted, I tweeted that before we went on to sweep the Yanks in four games at Fenway this weekend. The situation’s still bad, but here comes that nasty ol’ friend named Hope coming back to try and sneak into the home they were properly evicted out of a while ago.
One part of me understands that as the leader of the front office, Mista Breslow is sorta required to say stuff like that to a certain extent. Regardless of how far fetched it may seem to say you still believe in a team that is setting up shop with the rest of MLB’s basement dwellers, your directive as a CBO likely includes putting up the image of a united front, trying to portray an environment where everyone is rowing in the same direction, all that fun stuff. The other part of me sees that facade fall apart when I remember that only six clubs have as many or fewer wins than the Red Sox do as of this morning. Enough said.
To quote The X-Files, though: I want to believe. I want to see the narrow path forward for this Red Sox season. I want a reason to continue to watch this team other than the fact that I write for OTM! I want to stay locked in during the summer! In spite of what I’d call a (rightfully) pessimistic mood (maybe even apathetic) I’ve had in these articles as of late, I want an excuse to stay optimistic. I want some hope, as dull as any light of hope may be right now.
And to be fair to Breslow, you can squint and see a possibility (not sure if you can tell that I’m trying to add qualifiers wherever possible) where maybe the Sox can crawl their way back into at least being in the conversation in this dogshit American League that we’re seeing in 2026. Prior to the start of play on Sunday, we were the only Junior Circuit team with a positive run differential that could not lay claim to a playoff spot. The pitching is still quite encouraging… just don’t ask me about the consistency of the bats. I’m still gonna go ahead and say that the campaign remains on life support, but the flat line hasn’t fully kicked in yet. Sunday night’s win might’ve been the best of the season. To fight back after that brutal half-hour stretch in the ninth and tenth inning takes something that this club has lacked just about all year: character.
All of that is to say this: if the Red Sox are gonna go on this season-saving run that Breslow keeps going on about, it’s gotta start – or continue, I suppose, following the weekend at Fenway – right here this week. I reserve the right to start believing in something beyond the trade deadline if they can keep this momentum going, because sustained momentum would be a novel concept for the 2026 Red Sox. The opportunity is there, but I think this might be the last legit one before the trade deadline–and therefore, it could be the last chance for Breslow’s team to make good on his “we just gotta get hot” claims before he’s shown the door. After all: I had said that Breslow was officially driving the boat after April’s house clearing. If he’s so convinced that the only thing his roster needs is a hot stretch, now would be the time to see it through.
To me, it’s quite simple: this so-called “run” the CBO’s been on about has to happen leading up to the All-Star Break.
The Nationals, who are hovering right around .500 and score about as many runs as they let up, are coming into town for three games starting tonight. We then head out on the road prior to the holiday to take on one of the only teams in the league that are undoubtedly worse than us: the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California of the United States of North America of the Western Hemisphere of Earth. From there, a trip to the South Side of Chicago to take on the Pale Hose marks the toughest matchup on paper leading up to the Midsummer Classic. We finish up the first half of the season in Queens to face another team in crisis in the Mets. One team is legally obligated to win those games on any given night, believe it or not.
Within that group, I see one solid team, one OK team, and two awful teams in that stretch of 12 games. One could certainly call us awful, too, and we did just drop two out of three games to arguably the most inept organization in the sport before giving the Yankees the business. But that’s not the point.
The point is that now might be the last chance in 2026 to go on that run that could change the perception of the season before we reach a point of no return. I’m not saying Boston has to run the table here–hell, I don’t even know what a successful record in that stretch specifically looks like. Maybe it’s 8-4, or does it have to be 9-3 or better considering the hole we’ve already dug ourselves in? Let me know what you think below in the comments.
And just to be clear here: even if the Red Sox enter the break on a heater, they’re still very likely to be behind the eight ball in the grand scheme of things. One fantastic two-week stretch does not automatically save the season nor erase any of the problems that we had prior to the hot stretch. At the very least, though, it could–key word could, before you all yell at me–change the dynamic by the time the ASG begins in Philly.
If the Red Sox don’t take advantage of these next two weeks, it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming filled with “Fire Breslow” and the like. If they do strike now, perhaps the tune we take on is drastically different. This feels like the last chance for them to realistically do so, though.
To bring it back to Dune……..
“Our enemies are all around us and in so many futures they prevail. But I do see a way. There is a narrow way through.”
Last call for “The Run,” Craig. Bar’s closing.
Song of the Week: “Lost Boys” by Phoebe Bridgers
The queen is back.
Same time and same place next week, friends. Enjoy your holiday and go Sox!
