The Boston Red Sox won their 15th straight game by defeating the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 in a Wednesday doubleheader opener at Fenway Park, tying a franchise record set in 1946. However, their bid for a historic 16th consecutive victory ended later that evening with a 5-1 loss.
The Boston Red Sox reached a milestone on Wednesday afternoon, matching an 80-year-old franchise record before falling just short of outright history in the nightcap. The afternoon victory brought the team’s win streak to 15 games, equaling the mark established in 1946. That run came to a halt hours later when Baltimore claimed the second game of the doubleheader.
No team in Boston Red Sox history has had a longer winning streak than the 2026 club. Wednesday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Red Sox won their 15th consecutive game in the first game of their doubleheader with the Baltimore Orioles (BOS 6, BAL 3). Boston jumped on O’s starter Dean Kremer early and cruised to a relatively stress-free win the rest of the way.
There's a lot of games to be played, but if we keep playing with the energy we're playing right now, good things are going to happen,
Willson Contreras said after the Red Sox won their 14th straight game on Monday (via MLB.com). Special things are going to happen.
How the Red Sox Matched the 1946 Franchise Record
How the Red Sox Matched the 1946 Franchise Record
The afternoon game at Fenway Park saw the Red Sox jump on Baltimore starter Dean Kremer early and cruised to a relatively stress-free win the rest of the way. Boston loaded the bases 10 pitches into Wednesday afternoon’s game, had a 2-0 lead 12 pitches into the game, and were up 4-0 by the end of the first inning.
Boston’s offense has come alive during the winning streak. They averaged 3.96 runs per game before the streak, the second fewest in baseball. That mark is 5.87 runs per game during the streak, the fifth most in baseball.
The Red Sox wasted little time setting the tone in the first inning as Caleb Durbin’s bases-loaded, two-run single and Duran’s two-run triple into the right-field corner gave them an early 4-0 lead. The Orioles cut into the lead with a run in the third, but Boston answered right back when Duran hit a sac fly that scored Durbin. After Baltimore homered in the fourth, Ceddanne Rafaela drilled one to left-center to make it a 6-2 game. The Orioles scored again in the sixth inning, but they didn’t have enough to mount the comeback.
Rookie lefty Jake Bennett held the Orioles to three runs in 5.2 innings, his worst start in over a month. He surrendered three runs total in his previous five starts and went at least six innings each time out. Starting pitcher Jake Bennett went 5.2 innings on the mound, giving up three runs but getting four strikeouts to earn the win. Aroldis Chapman came on in the top of the ninth to earn the save, securing his 390th career save, tying Dennis Eckersley for ninth on the career saves list. The crowd of 35,089 at Fenway Park roared with elation as the team reached its historic feat.
It’s a lot more fun to play at home when we’re winning with the fans rocking,
as the team reached its historic feat.
The Streak Ends Against the Orioles in Game 2
The Streak Ends Against the Orioles in Game 2
There will be no sweet 16 for the Red Sox. Hours after beating the Orioles to match the longest win streak in franchise history, the Red Sox fell short in their attempt for a historic 16th straight win, losing 5-1 in the nightcap of Wednesday’s doubleheader.
The Red Sox fell into a deep hole almost immediately after the Orioles scored four runs in the top of the first off rookie opener Eduardo Rivera, and that deficit proved too much to overcome. Disappointing as the loss was, Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said his team is proud of what they accomplished and is ready to move forward.
We just won 15 games in a row, and I think all of us knew that like that’s going to end at some point,
Tracy said. It just happened to end tonight.
Amid a stretch that has been fueled by consistently dominant pitching, Wednesday night stood out as an unwelcome outlier. Originally the hope was that Ranger Suarez could be activated at some point during this series, but with the All-Star left-hander feeling under the weather the club opted for a bullpen game and gave Rivera the ball instead. Things did not go well for the rookie, who recorded just two outs on 41 pitches. Rivera loaded the bases with one out, allowed a run to score on a wild pitch and then gave up a two-run single to Dylan Beavers. Another run scored when Johnathan Rodriguez hit a scorched liner to left field, which Jarren Duran had no chance on but tried to make an ill-advised leaping grab on anyway. The ball went over his head, bounced hard off the Green Monster and rolled into no-man’s land, allowing Beavers to score from first to make it 4-0. When Rivera walked the next batter Jackson Holliday, Tracy had finally seen enough. The Red Sox interim manager pulled the rookie to loud jeers from the crowd.
Eduardo Rivera had a rough start when he gave up four first-inning runs. The Red Sox got on the board in the fourth when Masataka Yoshida’s single drove in a run, but that was all Boston’s offense could muster. Baltimore tacked on an insurance run in the seventh for good measure. Brayan Bello gave the Red Sox a solid outing after Rivera’s first-inning collapse, though it didn’t matter since Boston’s offense couldn’t get going.
Turnaround Context and Historical Standing in the American League
Turnaround Context and Historical Standing in the American League
Fenway Park was 34 years old. A 6-year-old future Hall of Famer named Carl Yastrzemski was just picking up a bat. World War II had ended 10 months prior. It was 1946, and that was the last time the Boston Red Sox had a 15-game winning streak. On Wednesday, the 2026 team matched that 80-year-old franchise record with a win over the Baltimore Orioles.
The fact that we’ve reached that, it’s a pretty, pretty amazing accomplishment,
interim manager Chad Tracy said. That being said, we got another game to play. We got to get ready to go out there and play again.
Records like this are meant to be broken,
outfielder Jarren Duran said. Hopefully we break it.
The Red Sox went into Wednesday with a 3.55 ERA, the fourth best in baseball. Their starters had a 3.88 ERA, eighth best in baseball. This is the third winning streak of at least 13 games in Red Sox history. Here are the three: 2026 at 15 and counting from July 3 to present; 1946 at 15 from July 3-20; and 1948 at 13 from July 18-27. The 15-game winning streak is baseball’s longest since the St. Louis Cardinals had a 17-gamer in September 2021. It is the American League’s longest winning streak since Cleveland’s AL record 22-gamer in August/September 2017.
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