Before Caleb Durbin’s 364-foot, go-ahead blast even reached the Monster seats in the bottom of the eighth, Willson Contreras, Anthony Seigler, Andruw Monasterio and Carlos Narvaez were already celebrating on the field, jumping up and down, embracing one another and shouting as they watched the ball soar.
“I felt right there like it was the WBC,” said Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, who played for champion Venezuela in March. “To be honest, I flashed back to when Willy [Wilyer Abreu] hit that homer against Japan.”
Even given the circumstances — a matchup between the two longest active winning streaks in baseball (the Red Sox at 13 games and the Orioles at seven) — you don’t typically see reactions like that, or hear comparisons to the World Baseball Classic, for Game 99 on a Monday night in July from a team that was only two games over .500 entering the night.
But that is the magic of this Red Sox run.
“This is fun,” Contreras said. “We are playing good baseball. We are pitching. We’re playing defense. We are hitting. We’re taking good at-bats, getting good pitching, and we’re not taking it for granted.”
The energy around this team has completely changed.
Not long ago, boos and chants of “sell the team” were a constant soundtrack at Fenway Park, and veterans were openly discussing how poorly the team was playing.
Now, Fenway Park feels different. The excitement has returned, the belief is back, and the Red Sox have created a postseason-like environment in the middle of July.
“It felt like the playoffs, going to the World Series, to be honest,” Contreras added on the reaction to Durbin’s home run. “Hopefully, it happens. To get there. We’re on the way, but there’s a lot of season left; there are a lot of games to be played. But if we keep playing with the energy that we’re playing with right now, good things are going to happen.”
When you rip off 14 consecutive wins, the second-longest winning streak in the history of a franchise that has been around for 126 years, a lot has to be going your way.
That’s especially true when the team riding that winning streak was 14 games under .500 and had the worst record in the American League only three weeks ago.
But of all the things going right for the Red Sox, who have won 19 of their last 21 games, perhaps the most impressive has been their newfound resilience.
The Red Sox have come from behind in six games during their winning streak, including five of their last six victories. Looking at the bigger picture, they have also erased deficits against the Yankees twice during this 19-2 stretch — overcoming a 2-0 hole in the fourth inning and a 4-2 deficit in the 10th inning.
On Monday night, they fell behind three different times — 1-0 in the first, 4-3 in the sixth and 5-4 in the seventh — and each time, they responded.
“Similar to Abreu the other day, the dugout’s alive, and you still feel it in there,” said Tracy. “Even each time that we lost the lead, we did a good job in the bullpen. Like, some of the leads we lost, we kept it to within a run to give us a shot. They keep coming in feeling like if it stays there, we’re gonna have a chance to win the game. They’re playing good team baseball right now.”
The Red Sox have shown their resilience both in their turnaround and in these recent comebacks. And that feeling has become contagious.
“It’s incredible. We’ve done it a lot this stretch,” Payton Tolle said. “It’s never feeling out of the game. Kind of, all right, who’s going to have the moment today?”
Three weeks ago, even the smallest of deficits felt like the game was already out of reach. Now, it feels like they always have a chance, no matter who delivers the big moment.
That’s why a Monday night in July felt like October.
It’s why teammates reacted to Durbin’s home run as if they had just taken a late lead in the World Baseball Classic.
The Red Sox aren’t just finding ways to win anymore. They’re believing. Believing that someone will come through. Believing that no moment is too big. Believing that this is more than just a hot streak.
