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The Boston Red Sox may be turning a corner after a rough start. Perhaps not all hope is lost for them.
The Boston Red Sox may be starting to piece together a run of sorts. They got off to a rough start this season, but now are 6-4 in their last 10 games, have won three in a row and are no longer alone in the American league East cellar.
To the surprise of many, they fired manager Alex Cora and five other coaches after starting 10-17, but they are now 16-21 and are just 1 1/2 games back of the final AL wild card spot. They did lose Alex Bregman over the winter, but do still have a strong core in place that might finally be starting to pick things up a bit.
Kerry Miller of Bleacher Report made a couple of bold predictions for the rest of the 2026 season, and one of them involves Boston actually making it back to the postseason after earning a wild card spot last year.
“In the woebegone American League, the Red Sox are just 1.5 games back from a wild card spot, and seem to have already turned a corner,” Miller wrote.
“Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer are no longer black holes in the lineup, batting .283 over the last 10 games compared to .181 during the team’s 9-17 start. Jarren Duran is still battling some horrific BABIP luck, but has three homers in his past five games to make up for it. Meanwhile, the unspeakable power of Payton Tolle’s mustache seems to have ignited the portion of this pitching staff that isn’t on the IL.”
Red Sox Still Have Hope
Obviously, the record of the Red Sox is not good, but they are fortunate to be playing in the American League, which only has two teams over the .500 mark. In fact, every other team besides the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays would be in last place in the National League Central alone.
Given that bit of information, the Red Sox still have hope, and if they can build off of their sweep of the Detroit Tigers, they could find themselves in one of the three wild card spots very soon.
The offense is producing better, and Boston still has a good pitching staff that can carry the load and get them back into contention. Boston lost in the wild card round last season after taking the Yankees the full three games, but with the American League being as weak as it is, there are reasons for Red Sox fans to be optimistic.
What This Means for Rest of 2026
The Red Sox are playing better, and perhaps interim manager Chad Tracy invoked some new energy in the clubhouse. But it’s always possible that all they needed to get going again was a new voice in the dugout.
This could lead to them possibly adding some pieces at the trade deadline to enhance their roster after being predicted to sell by many around the industry. The AL East title is likely out of reach, as Boston is nine games behind the Yankees, but a wild card berth is still very much on the table.
Curt Bishop Curt Bishop is a freelance sports writer who has written for various outlets including Heavy Sports, Sports Illustrated, FanSided, The Sporting News, Newsweek and Yardbarker. His work entails mostly breaking and trending news with a concentration on Major League Baseball (MLB). Curt graduated from Maryville University of St. Louis with a bachelor's degree in communications with a focus on emerging and new media, as well as a music minor. More about Curt Bishop