BOSTON -- With 1946 now firmly in their sights, don’t expect the Red Sox to decelerate even a little bit when they take the field next, on Tuesday night against the Orioles.
Fueled by a 14-game winning streak, the second longest in the history of a franchise that originated in 1901 and just one shy of the record set by those AL pennant winners of ‘46, you wonder how interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad can possibly top the electricity generated on Monday night.
Yet you also don’t doubt they just might find a way.
Caleb Durbin, all 5-foot-7 of him, was the latest to step into the role of home-run hero, hitting a towering homer that cleared the Green Monster to snap a 5-5 tie with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, ultimately delivering his team a 6-5 victory over a Baltimore team that came in with seven straight wins.
“I can't imagine it being more electric [on Tuesday] than tonight, but it might be,” said Durbin. “We'll see. Tonight was awesome, though. I can't speak for anyone else. We haven't really talked about it but shoot yeah, I want to make history here.”
MLB has seen just seven win streaks of 15 or more games within a season in the Expansion Era (since 1961), the most recent coming in 2021, when the Cardinals won 17 in a row.
Much like the crowd of 37,659 at Fenway Park, the Red Sox could hardly contain themselves when Durbin got the biggest hit on Monday. Nor did they try.
“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 [Abreu] hit that homer against Japan. I was telling [Durbin] that hitting a home in that part [of the game] is not easy.
“And I know he was 0-for-3 during the game, but the most important thing is that you keep your mind clear and keep your head in a good spot, because you never know when the biggest at-bat of the night is going to take you.”
Durbin’s head was plenty clear when he got enough of a 1-0 cutter by Orioles righty Tyler Wells to give his team the lead in a game that swayed back and forth like a windy day on the Charles River.
But once Durbin’s bat connected with the baseball and it headed over the Monster, there was nothing clear anymore in his mind.
“There's not a lot of times where, like, I blacked out, like they say,” Durbin said. “I think that was one of the moments where I just didn't know what was happening. I was just going with it. And I couldn't tell you what I looked like running around the bases.”
Durbin’s unbridled joy in that moment was a symbol of what life has become for the Red Sox over the last three-plus weeks, during which they’ve won 19 of their last 21 games after starting the season with a 32-46 mark.
Two days before Durbin’s go-ahead shot, there was a similarly frenetic moment at Fenway, when Abreu belted a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh that landed Boston a 7-6 win in a game it trailed 6-3.
This one was another roller coaster, in which the lead changed hands four times -- a contest befitting the two hottest teams in MLB entering the night. Durbin’s swing changed the momentum for good.
“It’s 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. Even when they lost the lead, they’d keep it to within a run to give us a shot. But 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.”
Still, there was drama in the ninth when Aroldis Chapman got into trouble and the Orioles had the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second when Tyler O’Neill hit a liner that like it might be bound for a patch of grass in left field -- until shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng lunged and snatched it out of the air to end it.
“He hit it hard,” said Tracy. “It came off the bat, and it's obviously second and third. So you're thinking, ‘Man, that might be a hit.’ And you're also thinking it's hit hard enough that there might be a play at the plate. There were a lot of things going through my head, but Z makes a heck of a play.”
Boston's 14-game win streak is the longest in the Majors this year, with the Cubs having enjoyed two 10-game win streaks. The last team to win 14 in a row was the Brewers, who did so last August. No team has won 15 in a row since the 2021 Cardinals.
And now the stage is set for more drama in a homestand that has two more games against the Orioles and three against the Blue Jays.
“There’s a lot of games to be played, but if we keep playing with the energy we're playing right now, good things are going to happen,” Contreras said. “Special things are going to happen.”