Red Sox are 26-3 and nobody can explain it

The Red Sox have stopped being a nice story and started being a problem for the rest of the American League. Since July 3, Boston has gone 26-3, a stretch so absurd that the internet's baseball nerds spent Friday just staring at the standings in disbelief.

Codify

@CodifyBaseball

THE BOSTON RED SOX HAVE WON 26 OF THEIR LAST 29 GAMES!!!

That number, 26 of 29, isn't a typo or a small-sample fluke. It's the kind of run that gets its own historical footnote. Codify pulled up the list of American League teams that have ever put together a 26-3 stretch, and it's basically a murderer's row of dynasties: the 1941 Yankees, the 1953 Yankees, the 2002 Athletics, the 2017 Cleveland Indians. Now the 2026 Red Sox.

Codify

@CodifyBaseball

the only American League teams with a 26-3 run: 1914 Athletics 1941 Yankees 1947 Yankees 1953 Yankees 1977 Royals 2002 Athletics 2017 Cleveland Indians 2026 Boston Red Sox

The exclamation point on all of it came Thursday night at Fenway, where Boston and the White Sox played a game that felt like it would never end. According to MLB.com, the Red Sox and White Sox traded the lead into extras, with Boston tying it in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th before Caleb Durbin finally ended it with a walk-off single in the 13th, plating automatic runner Nick Sogard for a 12-11 win. The game ran 4 hours, 23 minutes, the longest of Boston's season, and gave the Red Sox their 8th straight victory.

Umpire Scorecards

@UmpScorecards

Umpire: Chris Conroy Final in 13: White Sox 11, Red Sox 12 #WhiteSox // #DirtyWater #CWSvsBOS // #BOSvsCWS More stats for this ump 👇 t.co/ml4YCq7own

By the end, the White Sox were scraping the bottom of their bench just to keep the game going, a sign of how much this stretch is bleeding opposing rosters dry as much as it's bleeding their bullpens.

Codify

@CodifyBaseball

hey the White Sox have no position players left on their bench

It's no surprise the run is bleeding into national coverage now, too. On his Fair Territory podcast with Alanna Rizzo, Ken Rosenthal made Boston's surge a headline topic alongside the AL MVP race and the Dodgers' slide, which is the kind of company a team doesn't keep unless the league is taking real notice.

Ken Rosenthal

@Ken_Rosenthal

Fair Territory with @alannarizzo! *Ohtani/PCA MVP race *Red Sox’s surge *Dodgers’ slide *Braves reversal *Which sellers did best *Dudes, dorks *More YouTube: t.co/XY2bpFKnLj Apple: t.co/TAzNONwoO6 Spotify: t.co/lqPOm0gE5Y

Naturally, the betting market has started circling too. Weather-model tweaker Kevin Roth flagged Fenway's forecast as decent but not great hitting weather for an upcoming Red Sox game, noting that a chunk of the sharpest bettors were actually leaning Under despite conditions that would normally favor the Over — a small but telling sign that this Boston lineup is now a line-moving factor in its own right.

Whatever's happening in that clubhouse, it's not stopping. A team that was an afterthought a month ago is now drawing 1941-Yankees comparisons, and every extra-inning circus like Thursday's just adds another data point to the case that the AL East race, and the wild card picture behind it, runs through Boston.