How have the Red Sox have won six straight? Pitching, pitching, and more pitching
Don't look now, but the Boston Red Sox have won six straight games. In the process, Boston has reintroduced itself to the American League Wild Card race.
The Red Sox kept their streak going Monday night with a second straight 2-0 victory, this time over the Mariners in Seattle. Boston has now won nine of its last 11 games, and currently sit as the American League's third Wild Card team.
The Red Sox are just half-a-game up on the Mariners and Minnesota Twins -- and a game ahead of both the Cleveland Guardians and Texas Rangers -- so the margin remains razor thin. But considering where the team was just a few weeks ago, sitting in a playoff spot is just as surprising as Sunday's shocking trade of Rafael Devers.
Monday's win followed a similar script for the current Red Sox run: Stellar pitching and a few big swings.
Lucas Giolito handled the first part by tossing six shut out innings and striking out 10 Mariners in his best start in a Boston uniform. Justin Wilson, Greg Weissert, and Aroldis Chapman all put up zeros out of the bullpen to preserve the win. Rookie Roman Anthony provided the winning run early with a solo home run in the top of the first -- his first career longball -- while Abraham Toro gave Boston a cushion in the top of the third with an RBI infield single.
"There was a lot of energy today," Boston manager Alex Cora said after the win. "For the group, it's a tough day. Raffy, he's Raffy. He's not with us anymore. We've got a job, too. We have to continue. Today was a good day for us."
The Red Sox are on their first six-game winning streak since July of 2023. They started the month 3.5 games back of the Twins for that final AL Wild Card spot, with the Blue Jays, Royals, Rays, and Rangers in between. Now Boston occupies that spot, and sit just 5.5 games back of the Yankees in the AL East. The Red Sox have sliced five games off that divisional deficit since beating the Yankees in New York on June 7.
Is it sustainable? We'll see, especially considering the Red Sox have embarked on this streak in an unconventional way.
All about Red Sox pitching
The Boston pitching staff has been nothing short of incredible over the streak. Starters have gone at least six innings in each victory, and allowed no earned runs in four of those outings. Giolito hasn't allowed an earned run in two straight starts, while giving up just six hits and striking out 14 over his last 12 innings.
How good is it going for Giolito at the moment? On Monday night, he surrendered three straight singles to the Mariners to load the bases in the bottom of the third. He struck out the next three batters swinging to escape the jam, including Cal Raleigh on three pitches to end the Seattle threat. The veteran's velocity was up Monday, with Giolito touching 96 mph on the radar gun and his fastball hovering around 93-94 mph for the night.
On Sunday, Brayan Bello kept the Yankees off the board for seven innings in a 2-0 victory. Hunter Dobbins went six shutout innings Saturday against New York, after ace Garrett Crochet nearly went the distance before Aaron Judge took him deep in the top of the ninth.
Before the Yankees were in town, Walker Buehler allowed three runs over seven innings in a 4-3 win over the Rays. The night prior, Giolito got this streak started with his six shutout innings against Tampa.
During the streak, Red Sox starters have allowed just four earned runs over 40.1 innings. They've surrendered just 21 hits while striking out 41.
The Boston bullpen has held up its end of the bargain too. Over the last six games, Red Sox relievers have allowed just three earned runs over 14.2 innings while striking out 18. All three of those runs came in Saturday's 4-3 win over the Yankees, with Luis Guerrero surrendering two and Weissert giving up one in the ninth.
Red Sox bats doing just enough
The Red Sox currently have the fifth-most runs in baseball with 355 over 74 games. But the offense hasn't really been lighting the world on fire during the current streak, outscoring opponents at just a 17-8 clip over the last six games.
You read that correctly. The Red Sox have scored just 17 runs over the last six games, and have won them all.
Boston has just 39 hits during the streak, but seven of them left the yard. Unfortunately, all seven of those homers were of the solo variety, with the Red Sox struggling to get runners on during the streak. When runners have been on base and in scoring position, the bats haven't done much. Boston is just 7-for-43 (a .162 average) with runners in scoring position the last six games.
As great as the pitching has been, wins at such a clip can't be expected if the offense doesn't come through. Boston has a plus-24 run differential for the season, good for 11th-best in baseball, but the offense needs to be much better if the team wants to turn this streak into a sustained run of success.
The Red Sox did this last season too. A scorching June gave the team hope, before they ultimately ran out of gas later in the summer. To avoid a repeat, the team needs to start playing complimentary baseball on a nightly basis.
But wins are wins, and the Red Sox are stacking them up at a pivotal moment of the season. They've managed to claw their way back into the playoff picture, which didn't seem possible just a few weeks ago.
"Winning solves everything," Giolito said Monday night. "No matter what's going on from the outside, no matter what people feel about what's going on, if we win baseball games, we put ourselves in a good position to continue to win more and more, that will take care of it."
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