Red Sox Return to .500: A Starting Point on Their Journey | Sean McAdam

BOSTON — When the Red Sox were putting their team together last offseason, filling important holes in the roster and spending as they hadn’t in years, at no point did they say: “With a little luck, maybe we can be a .500 team.”

That’s where they finished last season, at a perfectly mediocre 81-81. Their winter and early spring additions were supposed to yield so much more. If we’re grading the 2025 season in terms of return on investment, the Sox have underachieved in a big way and there’s no getting away from that point.

But the Sox’ 4-3 squeaker over the Yankees Saturday night at least brought them to the break-even point for the first time since May 24.

It’s hardly cause for celebration. They should take no bows, even as they’ve now won three consecutive series against quality divisional opponents and gone 7-2 over their last nine games.

It could, however, serve as a launching pad for something more significant.

“Our goal was to get back to .500,” said Alex Cora. “It really doesn’t matter against who. There’ a lot of ways to make it to October. Now, we’re back to point zero; we’re neutral. So we’ve just got to get back to playing well.

“We played well in New York, we played pretty well against Tampa and in these two, we were pretty solid.”

Forget the numbers for a minute. The biggest cause for optimism centers more around how the Red Sox are playing. Finally, the rotation is regularly taking them deeper into games and lightening the load on the bullpen. They’ve also been playing a crisper brand of baseball. There have been fewer physical errors, and as important, fewer fundamental flareups.

“We’re playing a lot better as of late,” said outfielder Rob Refsnyder. “I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t feel daunting when you’re a couple of games under .500. To get to the postseason and get to where we want to be, we’ve got to be over .500. But it’s nice to get a little re-set.”

“It’s a step in the right direction,” conceded Trevor Story, whose reawakening at the plate has coincided with the team’s upsurge. “We kind of dug ourselves a hole early on, but this is the point we have to get to where we want to be.

“Yeah, we feel good right now, looking to ride this momentum. If we kept pitching well and keep hitting well, we can win a lot of games that way.”

This streak follows a period in which the Red Sox seemed to be fumbling in the dark for most of May. They lost the invaluable Alex Bregman and appeared to be a team in flux, unsure of their infield alignment on a nightly basis and with a bullpen operating on fumes.

Lately, the rotation has been far more consistent while Cora mixes and matches a roster full of rookies and journeyman, in search of platoon advantages and finding the slightest edge.

On Saturday night, the fourth run, which proved to be the difference, was evidence of their newfound ability to do a lot with a little. After Story led off the sixth with a double, Ceddanne Rafaela’s sacrifice bunt moved him to third and Marcelo Mayer delivered a sacrifice fly to left field.

“You can create momentum that way, too,” said Story. “It’s not all about the big swings or the big innings. It’s little things like that that can end up winning the game. Playing clean defense, we’ve cleaned that up a little bit. To be in the end with the really good teams, we have to do the little things well.”

Their stay at .500, in truth, may not be long-lasting. Obstacles lie ahead.

“Now, it’s important what we do next,” said Cora. “That’s the whole thing. We’ve got a big game (Sunday) obviously against another tough lefty (Max Fried). We’ll see what we do and then another long road trip (a three-city stop on the West Coast kicks off Monday in Seattle).”

Still, after underperforming for the first 10 weeks, the Red Sox at least have their heads above water. Having gotten themselves out of the hole, it’s up to them what they do with the opportunity.

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