Red Sox Win 14th Straight, One Shy of Tying 80-Year-Old Franchise Record

(WS News) – The Boston Red Sox have won 14 straight games and sit one victory away from tying the longest winning streak in franchise history, an 80-year-old record set by the 1946 team led by Ted Williams.

Caleb Durbin delivered the latest heroics on Monday night, hitting a go-ahead home run over Fenway Park’s Green Monster with two outs in the eighth inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5 and snap Baltimore’s own season-best seven-game win streak. Boston overcame three separate deficits in the game to extend its own streak to 14, the second-longest in club history behind only the 1946 squad’s 15 straight wins.

The turnaround has been dramatic. Boston held the worst record in the American League as recently as June 24 and was 15 and a half games behind the Yankees in the division at the time. Since then, the Red Sox have won 14 in a row and 19 of their last 21 games, pulling themselves into position for a wild-card playoff berth. Several players have credited a difficult stretch of travel delays, including a snarled return from Denver and a 24-hour ordeal getting from Chicago to New York, with bringing the team closer together.

Boston will look to tie the franchise record on Tuesday night against Baltimore, with a series sweep on Wednesday needed to break it outright. “I’m trying not to, but I want it,” Durbin said of the chance to make history, describing the moment his home run landed as one where he “blacked out” running the bases.