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This content was machine-translated from the French version.
Boston hadn't experienced such a streak since the post-war era. By overturning Baltimore 6-5 on Monday night at Fenway Park, the Red Sox strung together a fourteenth consecutive victory, their longest run since 1946 and the era of Ted Williams. Caleb Durbin delivered the decisive blow with a solo home run in the eighth inning, giving his team a hard-fought win after the Orioles had erased a three-run deficit. The Fenway crowd, on its feet, prolonged the celebration well after the final out, as if to measure the significance of a moment the franchise hadn't lived in eight decades.
A streak born of urgency
The Massachusetts club posts a 51-48 record since the start of the season, but the current momentum masks a first part of the campaign that was long uneven.
The Massachusetts club posts a 51-48 record since the start of the season, but the current momentum masks a first part of the campaign that was long uneven. Over the last twenty-one games, Boston has won nineteen, turning a mid-table position into a comeback operation in the American League playoff race. The team led by Alex Cora relies on pragmatic baseball: five of the fourteen successes came by two runs or fewer, including three by a single run. The consistency of the bullpen, long a weak point, largely explains this metamorphosis. The relievers have limited opponents to fewer than four runs in ten of the fourteen games, shifting the team from the status of shaky underdog to credible contender.
Durbin sums up the group's mindset in one sentence, reported by The Athletic: "I want it." The player, a starter at third base since May 28, posts an OPS of .904, confirming his role as an offensive catalyst in the lineup rotation. Around him, the offseason acquisitions and bullpen veterans have found a balance that was lacking in April and May. The bench depth, long criticized, is now becoming an asset in the heart of summer. The offensive production has also tightened: Boston has scored at least five runs in eleven of its last fourteen outings, a threshold rarely reached over such a window since the glory days of the late 2010s.
One game from the myth
The franchise's absolute record stands at fifteen consecutive wins, set in 1946, when Williams was still a young player and the post-war league was rebuilding. Tuesday night, again against the Orioles, the Red Sox can equal that marker in front of their Fenway crowd, a stadium inaugurated in 1912 and a regular witness to the longest streaks in franchise history. The announced rotation places Brayan Bello on the opposing mound; Baltimore will respond with its own starter, seeking to avoid a fifth straight loss in the series and to slow a surge that has become embarrassing for the league. Beyond the anecdote, the stakes fit into an MLB season where the American League remains wide open. Boston, long out of the projections, is approaching the .500 threshold and is becoming a credible candidate for a wild card ticket, provided it turns the momentum into consistency rather than a mere summer flash in the pan. The club's management, which strengthened its roster at the trade deadline, sees the strategy validated game after game.
A Fenway appointment not to be missed
Tuesday's game, scheduled for the evening, constitutes a full-scale test: the pressure of the record, the accumulated fatigue of an extended streak, and the adversity of an Orioles team that has nothing left to lose. If Boston returns to victory, the club will equal a page of history that no current player, fan, or observer had seen rewritten, and can aim from Wednesday for a sixteenth straight, then surpassing the 1946 record. For Baltimore, the evening offers the chance to remind that a streak, even extended, remains fragile until the next inning delivers its verdict. The Orioles, for their part, rely on a promising young core, ready to test the resilience of an opponent moving at full speed. The coaching staff will have to manage the wear on arms and minds, ingredients often decisive in American late summers. The rest will depend on a single pitch, a single contact, a single umpire's decision. It is precisely this permanent imbalance that gives July baseball its purest flavor, between statistics and vertigo, between routine and the vertigo of the historic moment.