The Red Sox have won two-straight games against the Detroit Tigers. They sit at 15-21 and made the Tigers the only sub-.500 team to be leading a division. Brayan Bello pitched well — his first 7.0 inning performance since August 22, 2025 against the Yankees.
Boston recorded 12 hits in the 10-3 drubbing of the Tigers, which is important to note. In 2025 they had double digit hits in 59 games, 36% of the season. This year they’ve done that 12 times in 36 games, 33%. In 2025 they lost 13 games with double-digit
hits (22%). This year they’ve lost 3 of 12 (25%). With much of the season still to come, including the warmer/traditionally offense-friendly months, the rates might look even closer. But the Sox have quietly put together something that tracks with a more successful season.
And those games this season they lost?
11 hits they fell 8-6 against the Brewers.
10 hits they fell, famously, 13-6 against the Twins in a Garrett Crochet start.
10 hits they fell 10-3 against the Orioles.
This has been a historically bad start to the season. But they’re just 2.5 games out of the playoffs.
We heard all week that this was a big day for Brayan Bello. And of course it was. But in the leadup to the series the talk was also Skubal and Valdez. No one knows what will happen in free agency, but most likely Tarik Skubal is leaving Detroit after the season. And what did the Tigers do? They signed another ace-type to pair with him. I’m glad the Red Sox went in another direction, but the Tigers wanted to go all-in and prepare for the loss. Boston needed a couple bats. Even Craig Breslow said that last fall. But Willson Contreras and Caleb Durbin were not the shape of offense anyone expected.
That said, once the roster was set they needed to play well. And hit well. On the 26th of March they recorded 12 hits. They wouldn’t get 12 again until April 15th. But in the 18 games since then they’ve done that 4 times, including last night. Ten hits? Home runs? 12 in the first 18 games, 15 in the next 18. Six since the start of May. Although it’s not raw numbers separating their parts of season: it’s streaks. April 4-11: zero home runs. They win 3 of 4. April 20-22: zero home runs and losers of 2 out of 3. Then they would homer in 5 straight and win 3 of the 5.
Losing 2-3 to the Astros last weekend was tough, no doubt about it. But the Red Sox had 27 hits distributed as 10, 8, 9 across the series. They scored 3,3, and 1 runs.
They are starting the finale in Detroit with 24 hits already in the bag. The last time they faced Jack Flaherty he only allowed 3 hits but walked 6. And the Sox would end up with 12 total hits once the bullpen was brought in.
Is this the start of something? They’ve looked somewhat better. Guys have had hitting streaks. There have been back-to-back homers and not simply hits, which was a challenge a few weeks ago. There have been men left on base, which is frustrating, but better than not having runners on base at all.
Is this because of changes in the dugout or simply regression to the mean? We don’t know. But it’s good to see. And if they keep hitting, some of those hits will drive in runners. And runners lead to wins.
