Willson Contreras is hitting .282 with 26 home runs and 78 RBIs, numbers that would lead the conversation on most Red Sox teams. This year they’re closer to a footnote, because Boston is chasing something bigger: 33 comeback wins, second-most in baseball, one behind Milwaukee for the league lead.
The Comeback Narrative Has Been Earned
The Red Sox swept the Giants at Fenway from August 21 to 23, and the last two wins came from behind — a ninth-inning rally on the 22nd, then a climb out of an early 3-0 hole capped by Nick Sogard’s second career homer, a 415-foot shot over the Green Monster on the 23rd. Chris Cotillo called it a statement homestand, and it’s hard to argue:
Red Sox with another comeback win, 5-4, and they sweep the Giants. A statement homestand (5-1).
Instant reactions:https://t.co/zOK7Tpmujc
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) August 23, 2026
Boston went 5-1 over the stretch and improved to 34-32 at Fenway, a record that looked impossible three months ago.
The streak didn’t stop with the Giants. Boston beat the Marlins on August 24 for a fourth straight comeback win, holding Miami to 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position along the way. Thirty-three comebacks is a full-season identity at this point, not a hot week:
The Red Sox have 33 comeback wins this season.
It’s the second most in baseball, one shy of the Brewers.
Never turn a game off early. pic.twitter.com/tgEBbLttFo
— Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) August 25, 2026
Trevor Hass wrote that the Red Sox have refused to lose since late June, describing the walk-off fielder’s choice from Wilyer Abreu that beat the Giants 3-2:
Since late June, the Red Sox have refused to lose. This was one of their most dramatic wins yet, as they rallied to outlast the Giants, 3-2, on a walk-off fielder’s choice from Wilyer Abreu.
“We’ve been that way for a while now.”
Story from Fenway: https://t.co/7Hek2gDtjY
— Trevor Hass (@TrevorHass) August 23, 2026
“We’ve been that way for a while now,” one Red Sox player told Hass afterward. Chad Tracy, the interim manager overseeing the Red Sox’ remarkable turnaround, put it just as plainly about Abreu’s hot August: “When he gets locked in, he can carry it for a while.”
But the Rotation Has Been Bleeding Arms Since Spring
None of that erases what happened to the pitching staff earlier this year. Kutter Crawford has been on the 60-day injured list with a right elbow and forearm flexor issue, a completely different injury from the wrist surgery he had last year. Since May 5, Roman Anthony has been out with a partially torn ligament in his right wrist. Trevor Story’s road back has been longer still: sports hernia surgery in late May, a rehab assignment that didn’t begin until August 14, and still no return date locked in. That’s three long-term absences dating back to the rotation problems that began in May, not three injuries from this week.
The strange part is the rotation has held up anyway. Boston’s starters carry a 3.09 ERA, third-best in the majors, and a big share of that credit belongs to Sonny Gray’s historic season — he’s 16-3 with a 2.79 ERA over 24 starts, and he tied Pedro Martinez’s 1998 mark for the fastest Red Sox pitcher to reach 15 wins in a season, doing it in 23 team appearances. Ranger Suarez and rookie Payton Tolle have combined with Gray for a 1.09 ERA across nine starts. Those are not the numbers of a staff falling apart.
October Will Ask Questions the Regular Season Hasn’t
The stress point isn’t right now. It’s how thin the depth chart gets if this run keeps going into October. Jake Bennett is already at 87 innings against a career high of 117. Tolle isn’t far behind: 99 innings against a career high of 108. Both are on pace to blow past anything they’ve ever thrown in a season, and both are propping up a rotation that’s already missing three arms it planned on using. Crawford isn’t expected back before September at the earliest, and Story’s timeline is still a guess, not a schedule.
Boston’s offense and bullpen have made the injuries look almost irrelevant for four months. Contreras, hitting cleanup behind a lineup that keeps finding ninth-inning magic, is a big reason why. A short series in October doesn’t care how many times you’ve come back in July, though. It cares whether Jake Bennett has innings left in his arm, and right now nobody, including the Red Sox, actually knows the answer to that.
