Red Sox Sweep Rays, Extend Winning Streak to 13 Games

The Boston Red Sox reached a place the franchise had not been in nearly eight decades Sunday, beating the Tampa Bay Rays 6-1 at Fenway Park to complete a four-game sweep and extend their winning streak to 13 games.

It is Boston’s first 13-game winning streak since 1948, and it ties that 1948 club for the second-longest streak in franchise history. The team record remains 15 straight wins, set in 1946.

The result also carried immediate weight in the standings. Boston improved to 50-48 and has gone 18-2 over its last 20 games, a sharp turnaround after the club was in danger of fading from contention in late June. The sweep came against Tampa Bay, which remained in first place in the AL East despite the four-game skid.

Sonny Gray gave Boston another steady start, working six innings and allowing one run on five hits. He walked four — a season high — and struck out eight as he improved to 11-1 with a 2.55 ERA.

Tampa Bay’s only run came in the second inning on an inside-the-park home run by Victor Mesa Jr. But Boston took control in an unusual third, scoring three times without recording a hit.

The Red Sox tied the game on a passed ball, then went ahead on Caleb Durbin’s fielder’s choice grounder. A throwing error by Junior Caminero on a play at the plate brought home another run for a 4-1 lead.

Boston added to the margin in the fifth when Willson Contreras drove a two-run homer to the opposite field, a 414-foot shot according to Statcast, to make it 6-1.

Gray’s outing continued one of the most important stretches in Boston’s surge. It was his ninth straight quality start — defined as at least six innings pitched with three or fewer earned runs allowed — tying the second-longest such run of his career. Major League Baseball said it is the first streak of at least nine straight quality starts by a Red Sox pitcher since Chris Sale in 2018.

That consistency has helped anchor a team that has changed course quickly under interim manager Chad Tracy, who has been in the role since April 25. Boston’s latest win did not set a franchise record, but it added another marker to one of the club’s best stretches in generations: 13 straight victories, matching the 1948 team and trailing only the 15-game run from 1946.