Pitcher Greg Weissert celebrates with teammates after the Red Sox beat the Yankees, 9-3, on Sunday night in Boston. The Red Sox went 4-2 against Philadelphia and New York last week. Steve Senne/Associated Press
The Red Sox will find out a lot about themselves this week as they play 15 consecutive games against teams with a losing record.
The stretch started Monday night in Toronto and will conclude July 4 when they play the lowly Marlins.
Not every team the Sox will play in this stretch was expected to be bad this season. Just about everyone had the Blue Jays finishing ahead of the Red Sox in the standings. If the Sox want to stay ahead of Toronto they’ll have to perform well as six of those 15 games are against the Jays.
It could be a season-defining two weeks for Boston. As we inch toward July, with the trade deadline looming at the end of that month, the Sox need to prove they can hang around in the playoff race. They began the week just three games out of a postseason berth.
The Sox survived their toughest week of the year, going a combined 4-2 against the Phillies and the Yankees.
On Wednesday, a day after dropping a 4-1 decision to Philadelphia, the Sox found themselves down 4-0 in the third inning. Then their bats woke up.
Led by young hitters Jarren Duran, Enmanuel Valdez, David Hamilton and Ceddanne Rafaela, the Sox rallied for an 8-6 victory. They scored 17 runs over the final two games of the series against one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.
Ceddanne Rafaela is part of a young core of players who helped the Red Sox score at least eight runs in each of their four wins last week. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
On Saturday, the Sox jumped out early and rolled to an 8-4 victory over the Yankees.
The Yankees kept trying to fight back, but the Sox responded every time. Closer Kenley Jansen flipped the script and called the dugout to tell Manager Alex Cora he was ready to come in and get out of a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth before his usual ninth-inning duties.
Who knew you could make a call from the bullpen to the dugout? It’s unusual, to say the least. And it spoke to the importance of winning a game against New York.
The Sox are 13-23 against teams with a record of .500 or better and 24-12 against teams with losing records. They need to keep beating the teams beneath them.
They haven’t always done that. Splitting four games against the woeful White Sox was a low point. A week later, after scoring 36 runs in six games against a pair of strong pitching staffs, the young Sox were again feeling good about themselves.
“We play, man,” Cora told reporters after Saturday’s win. “We’re going to win some games. We’re going to lose some games. It’s a good brand, it’s fun. The offense when we’re clicking, it’s fun to watch.”
The Sox and Jays on Monday met for the first time this season.
The Sox arrived in Canada with 36 more games against division opponents.
Winning in the division always impacts Boston’s playoff hopes. They were under .500 against AL East teams in each of the last two seasons and finished last. The last time they had a winning record in divisional play was in 2021, when the they came within two wins of reaching the World Series.
Making the playoffs would stun most people, who had the Sox finishing dead last once again. Their showing against two of the game’s best teams last week showed they can go toe to toe with the big boys. Now they have to follow that up by taking care of business in a run of games where they are the better team.
Tom Caron is a studio host for the Red Sox broadcast on NESN. His column appears in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesdays.
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