Red Sox seventh-inning rally extends winning streak to 12 games

Boston kept its run alive at Fenway Park by rallying in the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays and stretching its winning streak to 12 games. The comeback extended a surge that has moved the Red Sox from a club fighting to stay above water into one of the hottest teams in Major League Baseball.

The numbers give Boston a real case for staying power. The Red Sox have a plus-40 run differential this season, and over their last 30 games they have outscored opponents by 1.5 runs per game. That kind of margin usually reflects more than a brief burst of good fortune, especially when it is paired with a streak that began before the All-Star break and has now carried through a second consecutive series against Tampa Bay.

Boston’s recent climb has also come against a quality opponent. The Rays entered the matchup with a 56-37 record, making the streak more than a soft-schedule run through the bottom of the standings. Two days earlier, the Red Sox had already swept a doubleheader from Tampa Bay, taking the second game 5-3 after a 10-2 opener. Wilyer Abreu powered that July 17 win with two home runs, helping Boston reach .500 at 49-49 and extend the streak to 11.

That broader context is why the streak has become a deadline issue as much as a scoreboard story. Boston had reached nine straight entering the All-Star break, and the stretch has now pushed the club into conversations about whether it should buy before the trade deadline rather than drift toward a sell-off. Bullpen help has been discussed as a priority, with a starter or third baseman also in the mix if the front office decides this run is not just noise.

The Red Sox have now matched the kind of streak that multiple reports have described as their longest since 2016, which makes the next week decisive. A team can look like a contender when it keeps finding ways to win in the late innings, but streaks built on narrow escapes are also the ones most likely to cool once the calendar turns and the leverage of every game starts to tighten.