Caleb Durbin's dramatic home run lifts Red Sox to 14th straight win

Jul 21, 2026 - 14:40

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Caleb Durbin's dramatic home run lifts Red Sox to 14th straight win

Caleb Durbin has experience with 14-game winning streaks.

For the second straight year of his big-league career, the third baseman knows how it feels to rack up that many wins in a row, and his eighth-inning home run created a magical moment at Fenway Park on Monday, July 20.

Last year with the Brewers, he was part of a team that set a franchise record with 14 consecutive victories. This year, he's playing a part in Boston's mid-summer revival.

With one more win July 21, the Red Sox will equal the club record for consecutive victories, a run established in 1946. Durbin's two-out blast over the Green Monster against Baltimore pitcher Tyler Wells added another chapter to Durbin's own season-long arc from deep struggles to fan favorite.

SPEECHLESS. pic.twitter.com/5kN1wMnC0v
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 21, 2026

It was Durbin's 10th homer of the year, one shy of his total last season when he took third in the Rookie of the Year voting. Though his overall numbers (.699 OPS, .236 batting average) haven't yet risen to 2025 levels, it's a far cry from where Durbin was as recently as May 24 (.479 OPS, .163 average).

Durbin has homered three times during this Red Sox run, which began July 3 with the team 37-48 and 14 games out of first place in the American League East. Now 51-48, the Red Sox are six games behind Tampa Bay for first place and hold the third and final wild-card spot in the league, 1½ games ahead of Texas.

The Orioles came into the game on a seven-game winning streak of their own.

Caleb Durbin celebrates his go-ahead home run with Jarren Duran in the eighth inning against the Baltimore Orioles as the Red Sox won their 14th consecutive game.

“I can't imagine it being more electric [on Tuesday] than tonight, but it might be,” Durbin said after the win. “We'll see. Tonight was awesome, though. I can't speak for anyone else. We haven't really talked about it but, shoot, yeah, I want to make history here.”

The Brewers traded Durbin, Anthony Seigler and Andruw Monasterio to the Red Sox over the offseason for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton. It's a deal the Brewers would make again and again if given the chance after Harrison became a breakout star in the first half of the season, Drohan became a reliable component of the rotation and Hamilton became a regular starter at third base.

Seigler, meanwhile, has become Boston's leadoff hitter and second baseman. He has a .706 OPS after going hitless the past two games, but he's only slightly below average offensively and has played good enough defense to be worth 0.5 wins in just 26 games this year.

The utility man Monasterio has a quality .731 OPS and has played in 60 games this year. Brewers fans will remember that Monasterio's unlikely extra-inning home run in Cincinnati in August triggered a 14th consecutive victory for Milwaukee to establish the franchise record.