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LOS ANGELES — Six weeks ago, all of this would have been unthinkable. Every last bit of it.
The 15-1 mark in their last 16 road games. The eight consecutive series wins. The leap forward from 14 games under .500 to nine games over.
The 10-0 mark against their last three first-place opponents. The 11 comebacks in their last 15 victories. The 31-8 mark over the last 39 games.
And finally, for good measure, the three-game sweep of the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of the best record in the game. The Dodgers had been swept once all season until the Red Sox came to town.
The same team that couldn’t get out of its own way for the first three and a half months ago is, for the time being at least, virtually unstoppable.
And yet, as they packed for the long overnight flight back to Boston Sunday, having beaten back the Dodgers 8-4, there was little evidence that they were surprised with their own torrid streak.
“We’re just having a lot of fun with each other,” said Ceddanne Rafaela, “and having a lot of fun playing baseball.”
Before the series began, interim manager Chad Tracy downplayed any suggestion that his team was about to take part in a statement series. Tracy’s point was that his team didn’t need to prove anything to anybody, and that they already knew their own capabilities.
Twice in the three games, the Red Sox scored first, fell behind, then quickly stormed back to take a second lead they would not relinquish.
It happened again Sunday. After a 2-0 lead was erased an inning later, the Red Sox took control again in the very next inning, blasting three homers in the span of four hitters in the third inning.
A sizable Red Sox fan contingent celebrated loudly, and Dodger fans felt violated. Only once before this season, in mid-July, had any opponent (Arizona) done what the Red Sox were about to accomplish.
The mere notion of the Red Sox outplaying a team as talented as the Dodgers would have been laughable in mid-June.
“I think,” said Tracy, “they’re playing really good baseball. Obviously, we did it against the Dodgers, but we’ve done it a lot of teams now and we’ve been doing it for a long period time.”
Maybe that was the big takeaway from the weekend here — that it’s getting harder and harder to suggest what the Red Sox have been doing is some sort of fluke.
This no longer qualifies as a hot streak or any sort of aberration. That doesn’t mean the Red Sox can be expected to play .800 ball the rest of the way. It does mean that you shouldn’t be fearing that the bubble will soon burst and the Red Sox will return to the same level at which they played for much of the first half of the season.
They’ve been too good for too long now, and beaten too many good teams for some sort of dramatic regression to the mean.
This weekend showed them to be resilient and redoubtable, unafraid of any opponent.
“Willson (Contreras) said a couple of weeks ago that we can beat anybody right now,” said Wilyer Abreu, who followed Saturday’s two-assist game with two hits including one of the barrage of solo shots in the third.
Contreras had said that in the aftermath of the team’s record-tying 15-game win streak coming to an end. Whether he believed it or not at the time, he’s since been proven prophetic.
Maybe the strongest evidence of that took place when the subject of the trade deadline was brought up postgame. You might think that, as a team, the Red Sox would be practically begging Craig Breslow for reinforcements, a sort of “we-did-our-job-now-you-do-yours” message.
Think again. The looming deadline, then just 19 hours away, seemed to almost bore them. If you could summarize the clubhouse sentiment, it would be something like, “Whatever,” complete with a shoulder shrug.
The last 40 or so games — or about a quarter of the season — have convinced them that this current iteration is legitimate, which isn’t the same as perfect or without flaws.
Whether they’ll acknowledge it or not, they could use some help, especially when you fast forward to October and what they arduous month demands of teams: a powerful lineup and a deep pitching staff.
But the transformation is now complete: the Red Sox are for real, at least within the context of an otherwise unspectacular American League field.
When Tracy was asked before the game about the Dodgers acquiring Tarik Skubal the previous night, he seemed almost bored by the topic.
After acknowledging the obvious — that the two-time Cy Young Award was “one of the best pitchers in baseball” and would be joining an already formidable starting rotation — Tracy was ready to move on.
“We don’t play (the Dodgers) anymore after today unless we get to the World Series, so we’ll deal with it then,” he said.
In June, that statement would have come with its own laugh track.
On Sunday, it didn’t sound nearly so funny, or, frankly, very far-fetched.
More Red Sox coverage
- Red Sox deserve trade deadline help but aren’t begging for it with ‘We’ll see’ approach | Chris Cotillo
- Red Sox reactions: Boston hits 4 homers, finishes off sweep of Dodgers in L.A.
- Red Sox await trade deadline with anticipation, uncertainty; ‘We’ll figure it out as we go’
- Are Red Sox’ two star rookie starters actually related? Payton Tolle explains
- Red Sox have top slugger back in lineup Sunday as they try to sweep Dodgers in L.A.
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