It took six weeks, but the Boston Red Sox finally secured their first series sweep of the 2026 season, tying their longest winning streak of the year at three games. Following the sweep in Detroit, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow told WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show that the club showed improvement across the board.
“This was a great series in Detroit,” Breslow said. “I think we saw performance improve across all aspects. We got quality starting pitching. The bullpen came in and held leads. Got some big hits with runners in scoring position. Hit the ball out of the park. And played consistently good defense and ran the bases really well.”
The starting trio of Payton Tolle (7.0 IP), Brayan Bello (7.0 IP), and Sonny Gray (5.0 IP) combined for 19 innings while allowing just one earned run, good for a 0.47 ERA. As a staff, Red Sox pitchers posted a 1.67 ERA during the series. Offensively, Boston went 9-for-29 (.310) with runners in scoring position and hit four home runs, their second-highest total in any series this season.
Now, somewhat remarkably, less than two weeks after firing Alex Cora and six other coaches, the Red Sox sit just 1.5 games out of a Wild Card spot at 16-21.
Does Breslow still believe this is a playoff-caliber team?
“I do,” he said. “I believed in the offseason, I believed it coming into Spring Training, and I believe it right now. This decision, this really, really difficult decision, it was driven by that. I will be the first to acknowledge that we have not played up to our potential. We’ve got a lot of season in front of us to do that and to get back on the right track. Hopefully, what we’ve seen over the last three days is the start of that.”
After reaching the postseason for the first time since 2021 last fall, the Red Sox are still trying to build on that momentum in 2026. The hope remains that, if they can continue to stabilize and put themselves in contention, they’ll be in a position to add to the roster ahead of the trade deadline.
“Our hope and our expectation is that over the next two and a half months that we have leading up to the deadline, we’re going to play quality and consistent baseball that’s going to end up with us winning a bunch of games, and we’re going to be in a position to make moves that improve our outlook in 2026,” said Breslow. “That was the expectation all offseason. That’s what we talked about all spring. So, in terms of prioritizing 2026, a huge piece of the decision to make the changes that we did at the time that we did was because we believe we have a really good team that’s capable of a deep run in ‘26. That hasn’t changed at all.”
Another looming decision could involve removing the interim tag from manager Chad Tracy, who has guided the Red Sox to a 6-4 record, tied for their best 10-game stretch of the season. Breslow said those conversations are ongoing.
“We’ll figure that out. Right now, our focus and the rest of the organization has been supporting Chad in any way that we possibly can. And we’ve seen him, over the last week and a half, be this incredibly consistent, stabilizing, and familiar voice,” Breslow said. “He’s done an absolutely fantastic job in handling this transition. Also, in his kind of keeping the focus on the day-to-day and making this all about the players, which I think is incredibly important at this point. But we’ll continue to have conversations.”
