All of this should be studied for years to come.
Why? How? These are the most common refrains in coffee shops, post offices, and other public places throughout New England over the past seven-or-so weeks whenever the subject of the Red Sox comes up. They are questions we frankly aren't prepared to answer because this is such a summertime aberration.
You can start with the fact that heading into Saturday's game, the Red Sox were just the 10th team since 1900 to win 27 or more games over a 30-game stretch, with the most recent club managing the feat being the 2017 Cleveland squad. Before that, you had to go back to the 1977 Royals. There's a reason for that. Because baseball is the sports world's ultimate battle of attrition. The unpredictability of pitching. Travel. Random off days by too many of your own players, and on days by opponents.
This has not been normal for those most obvious reasons. But the conversation stretches so far beyond the obvious.
This was a team that didn't add any significant pieces since the June 25 about-face. There was no big team meeting or spreading of sage. Going from the worst home run-hitting team to one of the best didn't have anything to do with swing paths or trying harder. And living life without a clue of how to win at Fenway Park, or come-from-behind wasn't put in the rearview mirror because of a "Losing is like a disease" sort of speech.
If anything, it was the realization that trying to do too much will almost always lead to fewer results. In the Red Sox case, the understanding that it's OK to live life with bunts and well-placed singles was the thing that freed them up to actually accomplish the thing everybody was criticizing them for not doing - hitting balls over the wall.
Pick the quote you want to surface to define what has happened ...
Eleanor Roosevelt: "You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face."
Theodore Roosevelt: "Believe you can, and you're halfway there."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."
In this world of baseball decision-makers wanting to quantify each and every movement on a diamond, these mantras are the closest the Red Sox are going to come to defining the science behind what has been witnessed. Yes, the players have had to play to the best of their abilities. And, sure, coaching, strategy, and guidance are pieces of this puzzle. But there is absolutely no bigger lesson to be learned than what a psychological case study this run has bubbled up.
Once again, it's why the fear of what might be awaiting around the corner, or what can derail the Good Times Express come October, should be an entirely different conversation.
Perhaps appreciating this tidal wave of history isn't an option. Maybe we simply aren't built that way around here. It's the reason Willson Contreras is booed for not running out a ground ball in the Red Sox's 7-3 loss to the A's Saturday. For many at Fenway Park, that was the equivalent of going to the best-reviewed Broadway play of all time and the lead character forgetting their lines.
Whether it is because of the standings, having made up 10 games on the Yankees over the last month, or a routine end result, the Red Sox have been leaving their paying customers, expectations have overcome anxiety and apathy. That isn't a bad thing this time of year. But it's also OK to pause and appreciate how we are witnessing in real-time the rewriting of history books. For years, Red Sox fans held on to the 1988 "Morgan Magic" run as the go-to example of a Red Sox team going on a midseason heater. Let's be honest: This makes that look like a two-game win streak.
And if you want one more reminder, understand the potential importance of Sunday's game. If the Red Sox beat the A's, it will be their 10th straight series win, which is the longest stretch by the team since 1912. This is from a team that, up until that June sweep of the Yankees, hadn't won more than three games in a row all season and managed three straight victories just twice.
Things could go bad. There might not be any World Series. It wouldn't be the first time baseball offers a fan base such a slap in the face. That, however, shouldn't take away what the Red Sox have cemented this summer.
It's a stem-to-stern dynamic we have never seen before, and might very well never see again. That seems worth taking a few moments to appreciate.
