Why Red Sox Have Undergone Red-Hot Stretch In June

The Boston Red Sox have been among the most dominant MLB teams in the month of June, which reveals a significant shift in the team’s on-field performance with still plenty of games left.

Boston sits six games above .500 at 43-37, placing the team third in the American League East behind the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees — both by 7.5 games as of Thursday night. Although the Red Sox have been dealt a rough deck of cards, tasked with overcoming a laundry list of injuries hampering the pitching staff and starting lineup, they’ve still played with a competitive edge, regardless of their opponents.

So… what’s been the secret?

“It begins with the pitching, which has been there since the start of the year,” NESN’s Tom Caron explained on the “Boston Has Entered The Chat” podcast. “The Bailey effect is real as they’re calling it throughout Major League Baseball. Andrew Bailey, the new pitching coach, Justin Willard, the new pitching director, along with Craig Breslow, who himself was a pitcher here with the Red Sox on a championship team. They have really instilled a completely different philosophy with this team.”

Watch the full episode of “Boston Has Entered The Chat” here:

Boston’s pitching staff, which ranks sixth with a 3.54 ERA among all teams in 2024, isn’t the only factor in the Red Sox going from 12-16 in May to 14-8 in June, keeping hopes of a wild-card run alive and well.

“It continues with the hitting in June,” Caron added. “In June, they have been one of the best offensive teams in all of baseball. And there’s been a slight shift in the approach at the plate. It was a little bit of an all-or-nothing at the beginning of the season. Had a lot of home runs, had a lot of strikeouts. Had really bad numbers with men in scoring position, especially with two outs. Over the last month, they’ve been doing a better job of just putting the ball in play, keeping the ball moving, not trying to do too much.”

You can also check out the episode on Spotify: