Red Sox 6, Mets 2

 

Another day, another trophy. The Boston Red Sox have won their seventh straight game, a first for this season and a feat they haven't achieved since August 5, 2025. They're 12-2 since the start of the home stand against the Yankees, while New York's gone 4-11 since that series. 

The Sox arrived in New York late for this weekend's series against the Mets (plane problems) and without Willson Contreras (suspension due to the June 30th altercation with the Nat's race-baiting bigot, Cade Cavalli). They were expecting the Mets to open the series with starter Clay Holmes, but the sneaky Mets put Nolan McLean on the mound instead. No problem. They scored two runs off McLean in the first inning on a Yoshida single and never looked back from there. 

Major-league disappointment Juan Soto eked out an RBI off Boston starter Sonny Gray in the third innings with a sac fly, but that was the only run Gray allowed over six innings. Seigler hit a two-run homer in the seventh, and Abreu hit another two-run homer in the top of the ninth. Weissert gave up the  memorial Aroldis Chapman ninth-inning homer, but the Sox still finished with a 6-2 road win, and Gray earned his 11th win of the season.   

Every other team in the AL East also won their game last night, so Boston remains 11 back from Tampa Bay in the standings. However, they're now a mere 1½ games back in the Wild Card standings, tied with Toronto and Houston and a half-game back from Minnesota. The Red Sox' road to the World Series doesn't go through an AL East title, but by qualifying for the Wild Card and advancing through the playoffs to the World Series championship.   

With most of the Red Sox rotation out on the IL, Boston will start rookie Eduardo Rivera today (4:10 pm). Rivera's only other major-league appearance was a three-run stint in relief in a 4-1 loss to the Yankees on April 22, back when this team still sucked.  However, he got three K's in those three innings and gave up only one hit, a José Caballero single to center. Whether he's got the right stuff for a starter or not we'll know after today's game.

The Mets, if you can believe them, say they will start former Brewer Freddy Peralta (5-7, 4.68). Peralta is 0-1 against Boston in two starts, most recently a May 28, 2025 game when he gave up a home run to Rafaela and the Sox burned him out through 108 pitches in five innings, even as they eventually lost the game in extra innings. 

Will the Sox make it eight straight? Nine? Will they complete a third consecutive sweep? Either way, as we approach the All-Star break, it's been a helluva run down the final stretch of the first half of the season.