The Red Sox’s season ended in the place that tends to hurt the most: against the Yankees, with October hopes wiped out in two games. That finish will linger. But it shouldn’t be the only thing remembered from a year that swung from near-collapse to real belief.
Boston went from a team buried in June to one that spent the summer looking like a different club entirely. The Red Sox were 32-46 on June 24 and 15½ games back in the AL East, a hole deep enough to swallow most seasons whole.
Instead, they climbed out, finishing 87-75 after going 55-29 from that point forward. That stretch produced a .655 winning percentage over the final 84 regular-season games and turned a lost season into one that reached the postseason.
The surge reached its peak with a 15-game winning streak that tied the franchise record set in 1946. That old team featured Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr and Dom DiMaggio, and it finished 104-50 while winning Boston’s first American League pennant since 1918.
The new streak matched the mark with a 6-3 win over Baltimore in the first game of a July 22 doubleheader before the Orioles stopped it with a 5-1 win in the nightcap. Boston’s run was also part of a 27-3 stretch from July 3 through Aug. 7, the best 30-game span in franchise history.
Chad Tracy became one of the faces of that turnaround. He took over after Alex Cora was dismissed following a 10-17 start, then guided the club to a 77-58 regular-season record during his time in charge.
On Sept. 22, the Red Sox removed his interim tag and made him the 49th manager in franchise history. His contract runs through 2029, with a club option for 2030.
Tracy, the son of former major league manager Jim Tracy, had been managing Triple-A Worcester since 2022. Boston also exercised its 2029 and 2030 options on chief baseball officer Craig Breslow before the postseason, keeping leadership continuity in place.
There were players who gave the team substance behind the storylines. Sonny Gray’s first regular season in Boston was a strong one: 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA in 29 starts, plus 149 strikeouts in 169 innings. Wilyer Abreu was steady and productive all year, appearing in 157 games, hitting 24 home runs, driving in 76 runs and finishing with 66 extra-base hits thanks to 38 doubles.
Roman Anthony’s season, meanwhile, never fully settled. The 22-year-old was limited by problems with his right hand and missed 101 games from May 5 through Aug.
- He hit .245 with five home runs and 15 RBIs in 55 games.
The same hand became an issue again in the postseason opener, when Anthony left Game 1 and was unavailable for Game 2. His health now stands as one of the bigger questions heading toward 2027.
Even the final day of the regular season came with a strange twist. Boston’s Game 162 was a home game moved to Tampa Bay’s ballpark because of a nor’easter, and the Red Sox lost 6-2 to the Cubs on Sept. 27 at Tropicana Field. Former Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman, now with Chicago, went 4-for-4 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Then came the Yankees, who shut the door fast. Game 1 was a 9-0 loss in which Cam Schlittler struck out 10 over 6⅓ scoreless innings, Ben Rice homered twice and drove in six runs, and Boston managed only three hits. Game 2 finished the job, ending the Red Sox’s season before they could bring postseason baseball back to Fenway Park.
That’s the tension hanging over this team now. The ending was painful.
The climb was real. Boston proved it could rescue itself from a disastrous position and put together one of the most memorable summers in franchise history.
The next challenge is turning that kind of recovery into something even bigger, and making October last longer than two games.
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Red Sox 2027 Lineup Projection Raises One Huge Power Question
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The bigger question is whether all of that talent adds up to enough thump in the middle of the order, especially once contracts, roles and health are taken into account. Boston can sketch out a lineup that looks balanced on paper, but the real issue is whether the roster construction leaves one glaring power concern unresolved by the time that Opening Day arrives. [Read more 🡒]
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Mookie Betts Just Made A Red Sox Legacy Statement That Stings
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For Boston, the sting is not just where Betts placed the emphasis, but what it says about how fully he has moved into another era of his career. He also said he feels he is approaching the end of his playing prime, while his Dodgers contract runs through 2032 and has already been tied to his stated retirement timeline. For a player who once felt central to the Red Sox present and future, the message was clear enough even without needing any extra explanation. [Read more 🡒]