On June 29, nearly a month ago, I posted an article on this very website calling for a run. Well, I guess I had called for a whole heap of runs in the baseball sense, but I meant a run as in a streak. A heater, if you will.
The header for that day’s blog post: If the Red Sox are going to go on the run Craig Breslow’s been calling for, now is the time
Coming off of the heels of the four-game sweep at Fenway against the Yankees, the article’s premise took into account the multiple instances that Boston’s
CBO Craig Breslow had insisted that all that this team—which was on pace to be one of the worst in the league up until fairly recently—had to do was get hot. Go on a stretch where you’re playing dynamite ball and you’ll be right back in the hunt, he had said (I’m paraphrasing, of course) on multiple occasions.
“Oh, sure Craig,” I thought to myself at the time, “and maybe I’ll manifest waking up with a million bucks in my bank account while I’m at it. That’s all I gotta do by your logic, right?”
While the well-being of my favorite baseball team would’ve been the most important outcome of any streak the Red Sox were to go on from June 29 onward, my contention was also that any heater would save Breslow from receiving a pink slip. With how poorly things had been going on the field and how bad the general, I dunno, everything about the organization felt at the time, late June really felt like the “shit or get off the pot” moment for the Breslow project in my book.
I did make the Dune reference and say that the Red Sox had a narrow path forward following the sweep, but I can’t imagine you’d blame me for still ultimately having some doubts about the prospect of this club getting right back into the race for October in spite of a lingering sense of hope creeping back into the picture at the time. Even after beating Washington in game one of that series following the Yankees sweep, they were only 37-46. Calling the path “narrow” at the time could have even been considered a bit generous.
Of course, that was all before the Red Sox gave themselves a chance to tie the longest winning streak in franchise history tonight.
It’s Monday Tuesday Morning Brushback Time, y’all. (Sorry for the delay, Dan.)
What we’ve seen over the past few weeks has been nothing short of spectacular. Fenway Park is alive again. The club commands the attention of this city once more—just as it always has always done, but in a fashion we haven’t seen in action since…….shit, I don’t know!
“I don’t know” is sort of a perfect encapsulation of what we’ve seen when I think about it a bit. I cannot explain this on a grand scale. Sure, you can point to the offense picking up the pace (to even a league-average pace instead of almost-worst-in-the-sport pace) alongside the pitching staff’s excellence from start to finish, but plenty of teams have a roster built like this one. Those teams don’t typically follow up the a monotonous and miserable three-month stretch with a huge heater, a heater that could quite literally go down in history for a franchise that is full of history. Those teams usually don’t vault themselves into a playoff position when the idea of the postseason seemed laughable just about a week before the nation’s semiquincentennial.
Those teams aren’t the 2026 Red Sox, though, who are now firmly the hottest team in MLB and the talk of the town.
I thought a fun exercise would be to look back at some selections from that initial post I wrote, all those days ago, and compare what was said then to what’s happened since.
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… 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.
A few things here:
- If you had held out more hope than me with hopes that the Pythagorean record gods would smile upon us, then good for you. I had less faith than ye, because we might be seeing some positive regression here. As I write this late Monday night, the Sox have the second-best run differential in the American League behind those assholes in the Bronx.
- Even bigger point here, as there’s a reason why I put the final word of that quote in bold letters. The character that interim manager Chad Tracy’s guys have shown has been inspiring. Every guy refusing to roll over, multiple guys stepping up when the moment calls for it. We just saw it last night with Caleb Durbin, but look at what guys like Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela have done during this stretch. Hell, Masataka Yoshida’s had his big moments! Anthony Seigler! Andruw Monasterio! Tsung-Che Cheng’s catch to clinch win number 14 in a row last night was great! This list goes on! That’s character right there, baby.
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…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.
Well, again, they got hot. Craig got his streak, and I think that’s absolutely gonna save his ass for the time being. He already got the blessing to clear out a lot of the coaching staff in April, and if the good times keep rolling then the faith shown in him by FSG’s leadership could be rewarded. You win this round, Craig!
Regarding the Nats-Angels-White Sox-Mets swing we had before the All-Star Game…
Within that group, I see one solid team, one OK team, and two awful teams in that stretch of 12 games…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?
10-2. The answer was 10-2, following by another five straight victories coming out of the break. Me of no faith, clearly! It’s funny, too, because Boston really should’ve won that Nats series if we’re being honest with ourselves. If we miss out on the postseason dance by, say, a game……that’s gonna be a series I look back on in anger, in spite of a plea that a Mancunian man may offer me. But I digress.
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.
Well, what if it was better than just a “fantastic” two-week stretch, Fitz? What if it was a “historic” three-week plus stretch?
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…Last call for “The Run,” Craig. Bar’s closing.
The tune being sung is, indeed, very different. I don’t think you’re gonna hear many “SELL THE TEAM” chants in the near future. The bar has gotten their permit for longer operating hours due to the World Cup extended.
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.”
I did cook with that reference, I must say.
Let’s keep this going, folks.
Song of the Week: “Morning Glory” by Oasis
Keeping with those guys from Manchester: THE RED SOX ARE FUCKIN BIBLICAL YKNOW WHAT I MEAN LIVE FOREVER LG XX
This cut off of Oasis’ classic (and best) album (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? is SOTW-caliber in its own right, but I was recently made aware of a TikTok edit made by a fella named Evan Stengel that showed the dichotomy of the stinky Red Sox and the not-so-stinky Red Sox. That video, which is linked below, uses this banger of a track.
I’m madferit; well done Evan. I really need Oasis to come to Gillette next summer, man.
Same time (basically) and same place (definitely) next week, friends! Go Sox.
