The Boston Red Sox enjoyed a 15-game win streak that vaulted them back into the playoff picture last month, and they've stayed upright in the days since. Holding a four-game edge over the third and final wild card slot, Boston's preserved their flame with a series of games in which they've simply, pardon the cliché, found a way to get the victory. Whether they're smashing the ball over the fence or knocking it just a few feet beyond home plate, the Red Sox are proving very tough to handle.

The active win streak at the moment is four games, and the first of the quartet was an extra-inning triumph at the Athletics' temporary ballpark, where Andruw Monasterio launched a two-run shot into orbit in the top of the 10th to deliver a 4-2 final. In Thursday's game, the Sox were down 4-3 in the eighth, but the demolition duo of Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras hit back-to-back solo dingers to take the lead, each of them feasting upon some juicy off-speed stuff as they sent Luis Medina's offerings to deep center field.

Usually, when a team is winning as often as the Sox are, the clubhouse is happy and everybody's getting along. But Jarren Duran's remained a bit touchy. The man who was an All-Star outfielder two seasons ago and still put up 3.9 fWAR in a comparatively disappointing 2025 has been struggling through a brutal campaign where he's been unable to keep his average above .200. On Thursday, Duran shouted at Willson Contreras when Contreras didn't tag and score from third on a shallow fly ball Duran hit to left. Contreras downplayed the incident in the postgame, but Duran announced his feelings loud and clear.

"I fucking suck. Of course I’m fucking pissed at myself. I can’t even do a fucking job for this team," he said.

That's not the ideal morale to bring to Dodger Stadium, but it hasn't mattered through the first two games of Boston's series with L.A. On Friday, they broke open a tight contest with a five-run seventh and eventually won 9-4. On Saturday, facing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ceddanne Rafaela homered twice and the Sox squeaked across the winning run with some small ball in the eighth.

One reason for the Dodgers' woes on Friday was trouble in the infield. A Freddie Freeman error at first helped a couple runs score early. That big seventh-inning was extended by Abreu hustling to first for a hit, Masataka Yoshida dribbling an unfieldable ball partway up the third-base line, and Caleb Durbin laying down a perfect bunt to load 'em up. Saturday wasn't quite the same parade of miscues and useful bounces, but after Monasterio led off the eighth with a double in a 2-2 game, none other than Jarren Duran did a fucking job for this team by bunt single-ing him over to third. Connor Wong hit into a double play in the next at-bat, enough to score Monasterio, and the Sox held on for a 3-2 win.

I won't argue that the bunts are more important than the fact that the Red Sox have been homering significantly more often over the past month, but during this hot streak they've built a reputation for themselves as a team that loves testing an infield's reflexes. Against the Rays right after the All-Star break, they scored runs on consecutive bunt singles, and in a game last Sunday against the Blue Jays, there were three different innings where a sacrifice bunt preceded an RBI at-bat. It's an identity that any team would relish—accomplishing the little things that unlock a victory—and the Sox's execution on these plays is symbolic of the way they seem to have repaired their car in the middle of the race. They'll aim for a sweep of the Dodgers on Sunday night, leaving town just in time before L.A.'s reinforcements arrive.