'Are you crazy?': Abreu's 2nd straight 2-HR game extends winning streak to 12

BOSTON – Wilyer Abreu watched five pitches from Garrett Cleavinger go by, none piquing the Red Sox right fielder’s interest enough to even lift his bat off his shoulder.

But when the sixth pitch came his way, Abreu uncorked Saturday’s game-changing swing. Down by one with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Abreu launched a Statcast-projected 412-foot home run into the right-center-field seats to give the Red Sox their ultimate 7-6 lead at Fenway Park, en route to the team’s 12th straight win.

“After he threw three balls in a row, I didn’t want to get too excited,” Abreu said. “After that, I just tried to stay humble and get on my approach. … He gave me a really good pitch to my strengths, and I took advantage of it.”

At 49-48, Boston is over .500 for the first time since it was 1-0 after winning on Opening Day.

The Red Sox went down 2-0 in the top of the second, but they responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame. Abreu gave Boston a brief lead with two outs in the bottom of the third, destroying a no-doubt Statcast-projected 435-foot homer to straightaway center field with a 108.5 mph exit velocity.

“Every mistake, he's hitting out of the yard,” Rays starter Ian Seymour, who gave up the home run, said. “I gave him a mistake, and he made me pay."

The Rays responded with three runs in the top of the fourth to retake the lead, then they added an insurance run in the top of the seventh before the Red Sox scored four in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead for good.

Abreu watched his second home run of the game – his 15th of the year – sail into the right-center-field stands and threw his bat down and pounded his chest in celebration as the crowd of 33,077 roared.

“Are you crazy?” Abreu yelled in Spanish towards the dugout.

He also became the first Red Sox with multihomer efforts in back-to-back games since Mookie Betts on May 31 and June 1, 2016. Both of Abreu's long balls on Saturday came off lefties. Abreu batted .180 against them in 2024 as a rookie and .230 last year.

In 2026, Abreu owns a .357 average and a 1.023 OPS against southpaws. It was his offseason focus.

“Even when he’s not hot, he still takes quality at-bats,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “When he gets his swing short and compact, and he starts feeling that, he has the ability to string a lot of really good at-bats together, and a lot of them go over the fence.”

Red Sox starters posted a sub-2.00 ERA in the first 11 games of the streak, but the run of dominant starting pitching came to an end in Saturday’s contest.

Following a 61-minute rain delay to start the game, Red Sox starter Patrick Sandoval allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits over five innings in his second appearance of the season after missing more than two full calendar years due to Tommy John surgery and other setbacks. He struck out five.

All but one of the Rays' starting nine registered a hit against Sandoval. Tracy, though, felt Sandoval “looked pretty good.” He threw 54 of his 76 pitches for strikes and averaged 93.3 mph on his four-seam fastball and 94.7 mph on his sinker, Tracy noted.

Reliever Ryan Watson earned his first career win, allowing one run over two innings. Garrett Whitlock needed just eight pitches to retire the Rays in order in the eighth, and Aroldis Chapman secured his 21st save despite walking two in the ninth.

Sandoval was in the Red Sox's weight room with Aroldis Chapman's son when Abreu hit his second home run.

The starter’s reaction?

“Screaming,” he said. “Very loud.”

The 12-game win streak is tied for the longest this century, matching a stretch from June 16-29, 2006. The Red Sox will look for a 13th straight win Sunday in the series finale at 1:35 p.m.

“I’ve trusted these guys since day one,” said center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. “I’ve said it before, but there are a lot of games left, and we’re going to keep playing our hardest to win ballgames.”