In 2023 the Red Sox entered the All-Star Break winners of 5 straight and and 8 of their last 9 games. This pushed them from 40-42 to 48-43.
In 2024 they entered the break winners of 10 of their last 13 games before the break. An improvement from 43-40 to 53-43.
In 2025, of course, the Sox entered the break on a 10-game winning streak, including a four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays. Going back a little further and it was a 13-2 run.
Now the Sox are on their second five-game winning streak of the season.
They are 10-2 in their last 12. They’ve improved from 32-46 to 42-48. There are still 4 games between the Red Sox and the All-Star Break. One against the White Sox and three against the New York Mets. The Mets, Phillies, and Red Sox all got off to poor starts and fired their managers. The Phillies really recovered and the Red Sox kinda improved to around .500 under Chad Tracy, more or less. The Mets are still struggling.
It’s become a trend in Boston, apparently.
There is a second, companion trend over the last few years: not fully capitalizing on the trade deadline. But we won’t discuss that right now.
No, what we’re looking at is a strange occurrence. A team that is still trying to find itself suddenly puts together a run of wins. It’s hard to explain, although this year is a little more clear. Excellent pitching – the quality starts, the innings by starters, the (sometimes wild ride) bullpen holding leads – has finally be joined by run scoring. While a few 2-1 wins a year are exciting, watching the team fall behind 3-0 and not recovering is hard to take. The same goes for scoring many 9th inning runs but having few comeback wins.
What does all of this mean?
In addition to moving to 6 games under .500 the Sox have risen to 4th place in the AL East. A sinking Baltimore Orioles club has helped this. A struggling Toronto Blue Jays, who have been drifting downwards during the Boston hot streak, are now just half a game ahead in 3rd place.
The Wild Card race is really where the difference has occurred. Just a couple weeks ago the Sox were hovering at the very bottom of the American League. How many teams were ahead of them? All of them. Now just three teams – Minnesota, Houston, Toronto – sit in front of the Sox in competition for the third Wild Card. The Seattle Mariners are just 3.5 games ahead of Boston and a playoff spot. The Cleveland Guardians and the second Wild Card are a mere 4.0 games up. The Sox are now really, truly in the race. They are in striking distance of two Wild Cards.
Sure, at the top of the division the Rays (54-36) and Yankees (50-42) are still up by 12 and 7.0 games, respectively. But with two Wild Cards in the realm of possibility, the division isn’t needed as a path to the postseason. You get in, you roll out the rotation, and you hope you score some runs.
Are they buyers? Maybe. They still need to finish strong this week. It’s a tight race and no one has really claimed the Wild Cards. Then they have to play the Rays, Orioles, Jays, Athletics, and Dodgers on the way to the deadline. It’s not a guarantee that everything clicks. We saw struggles for two months after guys were as hot as possible in the WBC. But right now, the Sox are making their move. The team is looking more like we thought it would in February.
At the very least the Summer Sox are back.
