14 thoughts on 14 straight Red Sox wins
This is what memorable summers are made of.
1. 14 wins in a row is a lot.
That's probably obvious, but it must be said. The Boston Red Sox just became the 52nd team all-time and sixth team in the past 10 seasons to rattle off a 14-game winning streak.
2. 15 would inch into historic territory.
For one thing, it would tie the franchise record, matching the 1946 team that won the pennant.
Only two teams overall in the past decade have ripped off longer streaks, and that’s where things start to get fun. The 2021 Cardinals won 17 in a row in September to blaze their way into the playoffs. And Cleveland won 22 in a row in 2017, the sport’s all-time high-water mark.
3. Streaks like this tend to mint contenders.
The last team to win 14 in a row and miss the playoffs was the 1999 Padres.
The last team to win 15 in a row and miss the playoffs? The 1936 Cubs.
4. The Red Sox have squared their season.
More seriously: At their nadir on June 21, the Red Sox saw their FanGraphs postseason odds sink to 8.4%. Now, those odds are up to 63.7%. Not only have they basically put a little exponential two behind those odds and re-run the numbers, they improved on their preseason odds this weekend for the first time since they beat the Reds on Opening Day.
For all intents and purposes, the Red Sox are what we thought they were: A contender in the AL East pack with better than a coin flip’s shot at October. It was just a long, hard road to get there.
