Eleven days ago the Red Sox were exactly where their preseason record suggested they'd end up: buried. Last place in the AL East, the fourth-worst record in the American League, six teams standing between them and a wild card spot. Nobody was talking about Boston except to write them off.
On July 2, the Boston Red Sox were in last in the AL East, had the fourth-worst record in the league and were 6.5 games back of the final wild card spot with six teams to leap. Today, the Red Sox are a half-game behind Minnesota and Seattle for that final wild card spot.
Passan's math says it all. On July 2 Boston was 6.5 games back with six teams to jump. As of his post, they're sitting a half-game behind Minnesota and Seattle for the last wild card slot. That's not a hot week — that's a full-blown reversal of a season that looked cooked a month ago.
The engine behind it has been a stretch of dominant baseball most fans didn't see coming. Boston swept series against the Angels, White Sox and Mets in July and, according to reports, has won 14 of its last 16 games while riding a winning streak that stretched into the high single digits. A team that was flirting with the worst record in the sport in June is now playing like the best team in baseball over the last two weeks.
Context matters here: no team in MLB history has ever made the postseason after sitting at a record as bad as 29-43, which is reportedly where Boston was on June 18. If the Red Sox finish this off, they're rewriting what's possible for a team that looked dead in mid-June.
Now it's a genuine three-team scrum for one spot, with the Twins and Mariners standing between Boston and October. Every game the rest of July carries playoff-odds weight, and sportsbooks have reportedly adjusted accordingly as Boston's postseason chances have more than tripled in a little over two weeks. The Red Sox spent June looking like sellers. Now they look like the most dangerous team nobody wants to play in September.