Caleb Durbin knows what a 14-game winning streak feels like, and on Monday night at Fenway Park he helped Boston get one step closer to matching its own piece of history.
Durbin’s two-out, eighth-inning homer over the Green Monster off Baltimore’s Tyler Wells broke open a magical night for the Red Sox and pushed them to their 14th straight victory. With one more win on July 21, Boston would tie the club record for consecutive wins, a mark that has stood since 1946.
For Durbin, it was another stop on a season that has swung hard in both directions. The blast was his 10th homer of the year, leaving him one short of last season’s total, when he finished third in Rookie of the Year voting. His numbers are still only at a .699 OPS and .236 batting average, but that’s a long way from where he was on May 24, when he sat at a .479 OPS and .163 average.
And this isn’t Durbin’s first ride through a streak like this. Last year with the Brewers, he was part of a club that won 14 in a row and set a franchise record. Now he’s helping fuel Boston’s summer surge, and he’s done plenty of damage during it: three homers during the Red Sox run that began July 3.
That stretch has completely changed the look of Boston’s season. The Red Sox opened the run at 37-48 and 14 games back in the American League East. They’re now 51-48, six games behind Tampa Bay for first place and holding the third and final wild-card spot, 1½ games ahead of Texas.
Baltimore arrived with momentum of its own, riding a seven-game winning streak, but Durbin’s homer changed the tone in a hurry.
“I can't imagine it being more electric [on Tuesday] than tonight, but it might be,” Durbin said after the win. “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.”
Durbin’s place in Boston came through an offseason trade with Milwaukee that sent him, Anthony Seigler and Andruw Monasterio to the Red Sox for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton.
From the Brewers’ side, that deal has worked out well. Harrison has emerged as a breakout star in the first half, Drohan has become a dependable part of the rotation, and Hamilton has settled in as a regular starter at third base.
Boston also got useful production from the other two players in the swap. Seigler has taken over as the Red Sox’s leadoff hitter and second baseman, posting a .706 OPS after going hitless in his last two games.
He has been just a shade below average at the plate and has provided enough defense to be worth 0.5 wins in only 26 games. Monasterio has put together a solid .731 OPS and appeared in 60 games this season.
Brewers fans have seen this kind of moment before. Monasterio’s unlikely extra-inning homer in Cincinnati last August sparked Milwaukee’s 14th straight win and set the franchise record.
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