15 in a row! Boston on a winning streak 80 years in the making

BOSTON -- Chasing an 80-year club record, nobody on the red-hot Red Sox was annoyed by having to wait a day to continue that pursuit.

A rainy Tuesday night postponement gave way to a warm and mostly sunny Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader, and the good vibes were back at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox were not to be denied, rolling to a 6-3 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday that stretched their winning streak to 15 games, tying the loaded 1946 squad for the longest in club history.

“You keep stacking one win over another, and then you get close, and once you get within three or four, they start to feel like playoff games because you want to get there,” said Red Sox third baseman Caleb Durbin. “But yeah, then you look back at it, and think about where you're doing it and how long this franchise has existed. It's pretty incredible.”

“Records like this are meant to be broken,” left fielder Jarren Duran added. “Hopefully we break it, and I hope a team after us breaks it.”

Interim manager Chad Tracy’s club will try to set a franchise record in Game 2, starting at 7:10 p.m. ET.

Speaking of Tracy, he is making his own unique bit of history. The only two managers who didn’t manage the team’s opening game that season who have had longer winning streaks?

Per the Elias Sports Bureau, you’d have to go back a little while to learn that Bob Allen’s 1890 Phillies and Fred Dunlap of the 1884 St. Louis Maroons are the only ones, as both of their clubs won 16 in a row.

But you’ll never hear Tracy talking about himself.

“The fact that we've reached that, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment,” Tracy said. “So that being said, we’ve got another game to play. We’ve got to get ready to go out there and play again.”

Boston’s stunning surge isn’t just in rarified air within the context of its own franchise. This is just the eighth win streak of 15 or more games within a season in the Expansion Era (since 1961), with the most recent coming in 2021, when the Cardinals won 17 in a row.

Here are the other six:

• 2017 Cleveland: 22 games
• 2002 A's: 20 games
• 1977 Royals: 16 games
• 2001 Mariners: 15 games
• 2000 Braves: 15 games
• 1991 Twins: 15 games

In the late innings, the crowd got revved up in anticipation of history in the making, roaring louder with each out as Aroldis Chapman closed it out.

"A lot of respect,” said Orioles manager Craig Albernaz. “I mean, a 15-game heater is really impressive. It's tough to win one game in the big leagues, and them going and rattling off 15 straight, it's really impressive. They're playing really good baseball right now.”

For the second consecutive game, the final out was on a brilliant play by shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng, who went deep in the hole and made the long one-hop throw to first. When it landed in the glove of Willson Contreras, the sound of “Yeaaaahhhhhhhhhhh” from the Fenway crowd could be heard by all.

“I mean, it's awesome,” Durbin said. “You win in a city like this where it matters so much. That's what it's all about.”

A team that left Colorado with a 32-46 record on June 24 -- holding down last place in the American League East and much closer to the bottom of the Wild Card standings than the top -- started a remarkable surge the next day. Boston has now won 20 of its past 22 games following Wednesday's Game 1 triumph.

Boston now trails the Rays by six games in the division, while in possession of the third Wild Card spot.

How does such a dramatic turnaround occur?

“We've been doing the little things. I feel like we weren't really bought into just getting runs and just trying to [chip away] every single inning, and then it kind of developed as we’ve kind of got our identity," Jarren Duran said. "I feel like it took us a while to realize what our identity was, and we kind of found it, and we've just been rolling with it, and it's been working.”

What is that identity?

“I think we're a scrappy team,” Duran said. “I feel like we're gonna get guys over. We're gonna score them if we have to. Just put the ball in play, and I feel like we’ve got a lot of athletes on this team that, we've seen the past couple days just putting the ball in play and putting pressure on the defense. It’s just fun to see.”

The Red Sox are too “in the moment” to dig fully into those ‘46 Sox, who went 105-49 before losing in seven games to the Cardinals in the World Series.

“I've read some stuff," Tracy said. "I know Ted Williams was around back, and I’m aware of how long it's been, and it's cool. They've accomplished something great. So it's awesome.”