Allow This Stat To Put Red Sox's Historic Season (So Far) Into Perspective

Let’s be clear: The Boston Red Sox’s work is far from finished. You don’t earn a World Series trophy by winning a boatload of games in the regular season. (Just ask the 2001 Seattle Mariners.)

But let’s take a quick step back to appreciate just how dominant the 2018 Red Sox have been. After dispatching the lowly Baltimore Orioles on Monday night, Boston now sits 40 games over .500 at 71-31. That’s the best record in baseball by five games.

It’s also the Red Sox’s best record through 102 games of a season … ever.

The Red Sox’ 71 wins are their most ever through the first 102 games of a season.

Boston is 40 games above .500 (71-31) for the first time since the 1949 club was a season-best 96-56.

The Sox are a season-best 6.0 games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East.

— Red Sox Notes (@SoxNotes) July 24, 2018

That’s right: No club in the franchise’s 118-year history won this many games through this point in the season.

Get this: If the season ended Tuesday, the 2018 squad would go down as the best regular-season Red Sox team of all time. The 1912 Sox currently hold that distinction with a .691 winning percentage (105-47 record), but Boston boasts a .696 winning percentage right now.

Even if the 2018 club can’t hit that lofty goal, it has a very good chance of reaching another impressive milestone. Only three Boston teams have won 100 or more games in the regular season (1912, 1915 and 1949), and this year’s club is on pace for 113 victories.

Red Sox are 40 games over (71-31) for the first time since September of 1949. (via @MLBNetwork). hard to believe: they have not won 100 games in all that time. they are on pace for 113 wins this year.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 24, 2018

In fact, as NESN.com’s own Mike Cole points out, the Red Sox literally can play sub-.500 ball for the rest of the season and still win 100 games.

This is kind of nuts. If the Red Sox go 29-31 the rest of the way, they'll win 100 games. https://t.co/Nb5HvynR63

— Mike Cole (@MikeColeNESN) July 24, 2018

Boston has racked up the wins of late by taking care of business: The team has played 14 games in a row against teams with losing records and is 12-2 in those contests. That cushy stretch ends next week with matchups against the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees.

The Yankees are six games back of the Red Sox in the American League East, but as the 2011 Sox can attest, division leads can evaporate in an instant. And of course, if Boston’s regular-season success doesn’t translate to October, none of these stats will matter.

But as of late July, the Red Sox are an impressively balanced club — they lead MLB in offense (545 runs scored) and rank third in pitching (3.52 ERA) — that has the chance to go down as one of the greatest regular-season squads in franchise history.