The All-Star break and its many festivities have passed but the Boston Red Sox likely wish it never came. Boston was one of the hottest teams in MLB leading up to the break, winning 14 of their last 16 games and going on a nine-game streak leading up to the break.
Momentum has evaded the 2026 Red Sox until recently. They hadn't won more than three games in a row all season until they swept the New York Yankees in a four-game series at Fenway Park. Since June 25, they've had two separate five-game tears.
The start of the second half gives Boston a chance to prove it can continue a winning streak. It has to play decent baseball for the next few weeks to stay close enough to Wild Card contention to justify buying at the trade deadline. According to Twitter user Thomas Nestico, the Sox might have a chance, as they have the 15th-hardest second-half schedule in the league.
The Red Sox's second half ranks in the exact middle of the league in terms of difficulty, which could still be a tall order for them to tackle, given their struggles in the first half of the year. Boston's offense had been underwhelming for months after poor performances from some players the club hoped to lean on, like Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Trevor Story.
Red Sox's second half schedule allows for more success, but only if they make it for themselves
The Sox's late-first half winning streak also included matchups against some of the worst teams in the league. The Yankees and Chicago White Sox weren't easy teams to sweep, but two of Boston's other sweeps came against the Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets, which are among the worst teams in the league.
The Red Sox start the second half with a divisional gauntlet of opponents — the Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays will visit Fenway back-to-back-to-back (subscription required). Their ability to keep momentum and stick in the middle of the division will be tested immediately.
Boston and its division rivals have similar second-half schedule ratings, according to Nestico, but most of its opponents have tougher ones. The Orioles and Blue Jays rank ninth and 10th, respectively, for the hardest remaining schedule, followed by the Yankees at No. 12 and the Blue Jays at No. 16, just one spot easier than the Sox. Since the AL East will largely be in a similar situation in the second half, the Red Sox won't get much help from their rivals' schedules, meaning they'll have to play as well as their rivals to keep their relevance.
Much has to go right for the Red Sox to keep hold of the ground they just made up in the AL race. Many unexpected players have been hitting exceedingly well since their promotions (Anthony Seigler, Tsung-Che Cheng) and that might not last long enough to count on. Anthony and Garrett Crochet still have quite a bit of recovering to do before they're healthy enough to return to action.
But the Red Sox have something now that they may not have had before: belief. Their recent hot streak showed they can win, even without their best players performing to the best of their ability at the plate. Baseball season is a story of halves — let's hope the end of the first half was a preview for what's to come, because Boston's schedule allows for it.
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