Fourteen and filthy: Durbin launches Boston within one win of history
The Red Sox survived five Baltimore runs, four Orioles errors and one final ninth-inning heart attack to win 6–5 and extend their streak to 14 games.
The streak is now legally considered a public disturbance
The Boston Red Sox have won 14 straight baseball games.
Fourteen.
That is no longer a winning streak. That is a hostile takeover. Somewhere, an MLB accountant is frantically checking whether the Red Sox have exceeded the league’s allowable monthly victory limit.
Boston beat Baltimore, 6–5, Monday night in a game that featured lead changes, defensive disasters, clutch hitting, late-inning panic and enough emotional whiplash to qualify every Red Sox fan for a complimentary neck brace.
The Orioles arrived at Fenway riding a seven-game winning streak of their own. This was only the fifth matchup since 1961 in which both teams entered with streaks of at least seven victories. Baltimore had been hot. Boston had been volcanic. By the time the smoke cleared, the Orioles’ streak was dead in the street while Boston’s continued wandering through the American League wearing no shirt and overturning parked cars. (MLB.com)
The Red Sox are now 51–48, have won 19 of their last 21 games, and sit just one victory away from tying the franchise record of 15 consecutive wins, set by Ted Williams and the 1946 Red Sox. Boston’s current streak is also the longest in Major League Baseball this season. (MLB.com)
Normal teams gradually improve.
The Red Sox apparently found an enchanted amulet behind a Ted Williams statue and have not lost since.
Baltimore brought four complimentary errors
The Orioles committed four errors, although anyone watching the game may reasonably believe the official scorer stopped counting out of pity.
Baltimore starter Shane Baz actually pitched well enough to keep his team in the game, allowing four runs over six innings while striking out six. Only two of those runs were earned because his defense spent much of the evening handling the baseball as though it had been dipped in butter and covered with angry hornets. (CBS Sports)
The defensive circus began in the third inning.
With two outs and nobody on, Ceddanne Rafaela hit what should have been an inning-ending grounder. Jeremiah Jackson threw the ball away, giving Boston an extra out. This is generally considered a bad idea against a team that has forgotten how to lose.
Wilyer Abreu immediately hammered an RBI double, bringing Rafaela home. Gunnar Henderson then launched a cutoff throw into an unspecified Massachusetts postal district, allowing Abreu to advance. Willson Contreras followed with an RBI single, and suddenly Boston led 3–1.
The inning should have been over before anyone scored.
Instead, Baltimore turned it into a two-run donation to the Red Sox Winning Streak Preservation Society. (Camden Chat)
The Orioles later added another error when Baz threw away Abreu’s slow roller in the sixth. Abreu reached second and scored on a Contreras double, tying the game at four.
At that point, Baltimore’s infield resembled a group of men attempting to assemble patio furniture without the instructions.
The Orioles were charged with four errors, Boston committed none, and the Red Sox scored two unearned runs. That was ultimately the difference in a one-run game. (CBS Sports)
That is not luck.
Luck is a blooper landing between three fielders.
This was Boston repeatedly placing pressure on Baltimore until the Orioles began throwing baseballs into neighboring zip codes.
Payton Tolle battled through the blender
Payton Tolle did not deliver a peaceful evening.
He allowed four runs on nine hits over 5⅔ innings, but he also struck out nine and kept Boston close while Baltimore repeatedly tried to seize control of the game. (CBS Sports)
The Orioles scored first when Gunnar Henderson and former Red Sox outfielder Tyler O’Neill opened the game with consecutive doubles. Boston tied it in the second on a Jarren Duran sacrifice fly before building the 3–1 lead in the third.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered over the Green Monster in the fifth, trimming Boston’s advantage to 3–2. Baltimore then scored twice in the sixth on RBI singles by Jeremiah Jackson and Encarnacion-Strand, reclaiming a 4–3 lead.
For approximately eleven minutes, Orioles fans believed their team might stop the streak.
That was adorable.
Boston tied the game in the bottom of the sixth on Contreras’ double. Baltimore moved ahead again, 5–4, in the seventh on an O’Neill groundout after Anthony Seigler botched what could have become a double play.
Then Rafaela tied it again with a two-out RBI single in the bottom half.
The game had become a drunken seesaw operated by two people who had never seen playground equipment.
Caleb Durbin picked up the hammer
The score remained tied at five entering the bottom of the eighth.
With two outs, Caleb Durbin stepped in against Tyler Wells and received a 1–0 cutter traveling 90.5 mph.
Durbin did not return the cutter.
He sent it sailing over the Green Monster for his 10th home run of the season, giving Boston a 6–5 lead and transforming Fenway Park into a municipal noise violation. (MLB.com)
Durbin’s emergence has been one of the most important developments of Boston’s turnaround. Since May 28, he has hit .304 with a .353 on-base percentage and a .551 slugging percentage, collecting ten doubles, nine home runs and 26 RBIs across 44 games entering Monday. (MLB.com)
Early in the season, Durbin looked lost.
Now he is hitting go-ahead home runs during historic winning streaks while 37,659 people temporarily lose control of their motor functions.
Baseball is a perfectly normal sport.
The home run made Garrett Whitlock the pitcher of record. Whitlock earned the win after throwing a scoreless eighth and improved to 5–1. Wells took the loss, dropping to 2–2. (CBS Sports)
Chapman attempted to kill everyone recreationally
Aroldis Chapman entered the ninth protecting a one-run lead.
Naturally, he decided this would be a fine opportunity to see whether the entire population of New England could survive without oxygen.
Chapman walked Colton Cowser to begin the inning. He eventually recorded two outs, but Gunnar Henderson then hammered his third double of the game off the Monster, moving the tying run to third and the go-ahead run to second.
Up came Tyler O’Neill.
Former Red Sox player.
Big power.
Two runners in scoring position.
One-run game.
Historic winning streak.
The entire situation had been carefully engineered in a laboratory to produce maximum Boston gastrointestinal distress.
O’Neill smoked a liner toward the left side. For half a second, it appeared the streak was about to end in the most obnoxious manner possible.
Then shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng raced over and caught it, sealing the victory and preventing roughly 2.7 million televisions from being launched through living-room windows. (MLB.com)
Chapman earned his 22nd save.
The medical definition of a save may need updating.
The numbers from the madness
Boston finished with six runs, ten hits and no errors. Baltimore had five runs, eleven hits and four errors. (CBS Sports)
Contreras had two hits, drove in two runs and scored twice. Abreu doubled, drove in a run and repeatedly benefited from Baltimore throwing the ball as though aiming for spectators. Rafaela reached on the critical third-inning error and later produced the game-tying RBI single in the seventh.
On the Baltimore side, Henderson had three doubles, Encarnacion-Strand homered and drove in two, and O’Neill drove in two runs against his former team.
The Orioles had more hits.
They had several leads.
They had runners on second and third in the ninth.
They also played defense like a recreational softball team whose shortstop had consumed six raspberry margaritas.
Boston made the plays. Baltimore did not.
That was the game.
This is what a real contender looks like
Here is the uncomfortable question for Red Sox ownership:
How much more evidence do you need?
Boston is no longer merely hovering around .500 and pretending the expanded playoff format is a strategic plan. This team has gone 19–2 since June 25, won 14 straight and fought its way back into postseason position. (MLB.com)
Some of these victories have been clean.
Others have required pitching.
Others have required power.
Monday night required pressure, opportunism, defense and the refusal to collapse when Baltimore repeatedly reclaimed the lead.
That variety matters.
Bad teams win when everything goes right.
Dangerous teams win when the starting pitcher is imperfect, the opponent collects eleven hits and the closer turns the ninth inning into an escape room.
The Sox did not overpower Baltimore for nine innings. They simply kept answering. Every time the Orioles landed a punch, Boston stood up, adjusted its crooked necktie and punched back.
That is the characteristic fans have been waiting years to see again.
Not prospect rankings.
Not payroll flexibility.
Not another lecture about sustainable roster construction delivered from behind a spreadsheet.
Urgency.
The front office can no longer hide behind patience. A 14-game winning streak does not guarantee October success, but it absolutely changes the obligation. The Red Sox have created a legitimate opportunity. Their job now is to strengthen it, not admire it from a safe distance while every useful pitcher gets traded elsewhere.
The streak will eventually end. All streaks do.
The larger question is what remains when it does.
If Boston adds intelligently at the deadline, this month could become the beginning of something meaningful. If ownership treats it as a temporary sugar rush and refuses to reinforce the roster, this magical run may become another chapter titled, “Remember when they almost made us believe?”
Right now, though, they have earned belief.
Fourteen straight.
One more to tie history.
And suddenly, Fenway Park feels alive again.
The Red Sox go for their 15th consecutive victory Tuesday night, which would tie the franchise record established in 1946. Ranger Suárez is expected to return from the injured list and face Baltimore right-hander Kyle Bradish. (CBS Sports)
Follow Red Sox Digest, share the article with the most emotionally damaged Red Sox fan you know, and join us tonight as Boston attempts to tie history—preferably without placing two runners in scoring position in the ninth inning.
What a run it’s been for the Sox!