There was a lot to like in Red Sox' sixth straight win

The Boston Red Sox are streaking again. After a brief 3-3 interlude following their 15-game win streak last month, the Sox have now six in a row. On Tuesday night, it was a dominant 14-2 win over the American League Central-leading Chicago White Sox.

It's hard to even know where to start with the positives at this point. Caleb Durbin's first-inning grand slam is as good a place as any. It was the first of his career, and given how things have been going for the Red Sox recently, it kind of felt like the game was all but over at 5-0, just six batters into the bottom of the first.

Four pitches later, Jarren Duran made it back-to-back home runs, marking the second straight game the Sox have gone back-to-back (Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu did it Sunday night as Boston completed its sweep of the Dodgers). After an uncertain deadline for Duran – and thoughts that he might even get released – that had to have felt good.

Speaking of Rafaela and Abreu, they continued to do damage, too. Abreu hit two home runs, and now has four in the last five games. Rafaela drilled a two-run double to left in the sixth to make it 11-2. Willson Contreras, the third heart-of-the-order mainstay, went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Nick Sogard and Andruw Monasterio, two guys whose playing time seemed threatened amid rumored pursuits of middle infield upgrades, each had multi-hit games. In the end, every Red Sox starter except Connor Wong had at least one hit, and a whopping seven of them had two. Oh, and Wong's spot in the lineup just happens to be the one that's going to get upgraded whenever deadline acquisition Adley Rutschman is cleared to play.

All of that is just on the offensive side. On the mound, the feel-good story of the night was Patrick Sandoval picking up his first big-league win since May 7, 2024, the latest step in his return from Tommy John surgery that cost him two years.

Sandoval was far from perfect. He allowed 10 baserunners (6 hits, 4 walks) in his five innings of work, but he worked his way out of jams and ultimately allowed just two runs while striking out five. That's kind of been the story across his five outings this season; it's not always pretty, but he's now allowed two runs or fewer in four of his five starts.

Sandoval said he can feel himself getting closer to where he wants to be.

"Yeah. It's pretty annoying. I feel like every single time I come out, I'm so close," he said. "I'm so close. I'm so close. One of these days, it's gonna click."

In the meantime, Sandoval was able to enjoy another Red Sox offensive explosion and breathe easy on the mound.

"I was just happy, excited," Sandoval said when asked about Boston's six-run first inning. "What a way to come back from Fenway after a pretty good road trip and a pretty good day yesterday. Happy for us, happy for the fans. It was a perfect way to start it off."

There's a lot of that going around for the Red Sox and their fans right about now.