Wilyer Abreu powers Red Sox to 12th Straight, longest streak since 2006

Just a few weeks ago, the Red Sox looked dead in the water. Now they're the hottest team in baseball.

Wilyer Abreu homered twice, including a go-ahead two-run blast in the seventh inning, to lift Boston to a 7-6 comeback win over the Rays on Saturday afternoon. The victory was Boston's 12th straight, its longest winning streak since June 2006.

For much of the afternoon, it looked as though Tampa Bay was finally going to snap the streak.

The Rays jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Patrick Sandoval before the Red Sox answered immediately.

The rally started with Andruw Monasterio, who fouled off 10 pitches before being called out on strike three. After challenging the pitch, the replay showed it missed the zone, and Monasterio instead drew a two-out walk.

That brought up Jahmai Jones, making his first start since being acquired from the Tigers earlier in the week. Jones wasted little time making an impression, crushing a 407-foot, two-run homer over the Green Monster to tie the game at 2-2.

Abreu unloaded on a pitch, sending it 435 feet over the center-field fence to give Boston a 3-2 lead. The right fielder has feasted on left-handed pitching this season.

"He has been great against them all year," interim manager Chad Tracy said.

Making his first Fenway start as a member of the Red Sox, Sandoval settled in after the rocky second but ran into more trouble in the fourth. 

“I felt really good, I felt like my stuff was really good, I feel like I was four or five pitches away from maybe getting into the sixth,” Sandoval said. “It’s weird, I feel really good about how I felt in most of my performance, but also at the same time coming out of the game giving up the lead … It’s not a good feeling, but I feel like I’m trending in the right direction.”

“Not even I could ruin the streak,” the Sox starter joked to reporters. 

Tampa Bay strung together a single, three doubles and a home run during a three-run inning to take a 5-3 lead. The damage could have been worse had Ceddanne Rafaela not started a perfect relay through Anthony Seigler to Carlos Narváez to cut down a runner at the plate.

Ian Seymour lasted just three innings for Tampa Bay, allowing three runs on two hits, both home runs, while walking two and striking out four over 61 pitches.

Boston couldn't solve the Rays' bullpen early. Kevin Kelly threw two scoreless innings before Casey Legumina escaped the sixth despite hitting Willson Contreras with a pitch.

When Jonny DeLuca ambushed Ryan Watson's first pitch of the seventh for a solo homer that made it 6-3, it appeared the Rays had finally created enough separation.

Instead, the Red Sox authored another comeback.

Monasterio led off the bottom of the seventh with his second double of the afternoon before Jarren Duran reached on a throwing error by Vilade. Masataka Yoshida's RBI groundout scored Monasterio, and Rafaela lined his team-leading 25th double off the Green Monster to cut the deficit to one.

That brought Abreu to the plate.

After Garrett Cleavinger opened the at-bat with three straight balls, he battled back to a full count. Abreu won the battle, launching a Statcast-projected 412-foot fastball into the right-center field seats for his 15th homer of the season, bringing the crowd of 33,077 to its feet and giving Boston a 7-6 lead.

“After he threw three balls in a row, I didn’t want to get too excited,” said Abreu. “After that, just tried to stay humble and keep on my approach. I gave him the first strike, he made a good pitch on the second one and after that, I just tried to get a good pitch to hit.”

The two-homer performance came one day after Abreu also homered twice, making him the first Red Sox player since Mookie Betts on May 31 and June 1, 2016, to record multi-homer games in consecutive games.

“Even when he’s not hot, he still takes really quality at-bats... but when he gets his swing short and compact and starts feeling that, he has the ability to string a lot of really good at-bats together and a lot of them go over the fence,” Tracy said. “He’s taking those kind of at-bats right now. When he hits a homer or two, you feel like they come in bunches and they certainly are right now. They’ve been in big spots.”

Garrett Whitlock worked a perfect eighth, throwing just eight pitches, before turning the ball over to All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman.

The ninth wasn't without drama.

Chapman retired the first two hitters before walking Richie Palacios and Yandy Díaz, with pinch-runner Taylor Walls stealing second between the free passes. With the tying runs in scoring position, Chapman induced a weak ground ball from DeLuca to end the game and preserve Boston's 12th consecutive victory.

The winning streak is Boston's longest in more than 20 years and has the Red Sox over .500 for just the second time all season. The only other time they owned a winning record came after Opening Day, when they improved to 1-0 with a win over Cincinnati.

Saturday's rally also erased another frustrating trend. The Red Sox entered the day 0-34 when trailing by three or more runs before pulling off one of their most dramatic wins of the season.

The Red Sox will look to complete a four-game sweep Sunday afternoon when Sonny Gray (11-1, 2.54 ERA) faces Rays ace Shane McClanahan (8-5, 2.83 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. at Fenway Park.