Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox

Not only are the Red Sox at last back even at 48-48, but they are roaring with so much momentum that not even the All-Star break could stop it. After sweeping Friday’s doubleheader against the American League East-leading Rays, first with a rout in the afternoon and capped by a 5-3 victory in the nightcap, the Red Sox have their first 11-game winning streak since Sept. 15-25, 2016, when the centerpieces of the lineup were Mookie Betts, David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. That squad never had to climb out of a hole like this one. As recently as June 24, these Sox were 14 games under .500 and seemingly on the verge of selling parts in advance of the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline. The next day, the energy shifted and the Sox started rolling and haven’t stopped. Interim manager Chad Tracy’s squad has ripped off 16 wins over their last 18 games, and that is what it took for the club to pull back to .500 for the first time since the second game of the season on March 28. “It means a lot,” said right fielder Wilyer Abreu. “Everybody has started to feel the vibe. The fans today, that was amazing. Since the start of the game, everybody was cheering, everybody was supporting us. So we tried to give them a really good game. I think we did.” While chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s blueprint for this team was to lean into pitching and defense -- and that has been a near constant strength of the squad -- the difference during this surge is that the offense is impacting games on a regular basis. Abreu (two homers) and Willson Contreras (solo shot) helped power the 11th successive win, clinching at least a split of this four-game set against the 56-40 Rays. Here were the moments that mattered most from Friday’s nightcap. **1\. Bullpen comes up aces** With the doubleheader, Tracy said he wasn’t going to burn two of his regular starters on the same day. After Jake Bennett turned in a brilliant performance in Game 1, the Sox turned to recent call-up Eduardo Rivera as an extended opener. Though the lefty struggled, giving up three runs in 2 1/3 innings, the rest of the bullpen had his back.