The Red Sox have won thirteen in a row, and there are now officially two kinds of fans at Fenway. The first is wearing the same Red Sox T-shirt they've had on for the entire streak, unwashed, because they are not about to be the reason it ends. The second has taken theirs off entirely and is rotating it overhead in the bleachers. Both are correct. Both are doing their job.
Sunday's 6-1 win completed a four-game sweep of the Rays, their fourth straight sweep, and pushed this season somewhere none of us expected. Thirteen straight ties the 1948 club for the second-longest winning streak in franchise history. Not 2004. Not 1967. 1948.
A month ago this season was quietly circling the drain. Since late June they've gone 18-2, which is less a stretch of baseball than a dare.
The superstition playbook has nothing for this. You know how these things usually end. You've watched enough hot streaks since the '80s to expect the inevitable faceplant, and this one just keeps refusing to cooperate. So now you're doing Wild Card math in July with the part of your brain you promised you'd retire. You're wearing the lucky shirt. You're touching nothing. You're saying nothing. It's not rational. Neither is 18-2.
Meanwhile, the bleachers have moved past superstition entirely and into the shirt-wave era, which is why the newest thing in our Red Sox shop is the Tarps Off tee. Heavyweight white cotton, built to survive sustained overhead rotation.
The official shirt of not wearing a shirt. Wear it to the park. When the moment arrives, you'll know. Enjoy the streak. Trust nothing.
Please wave responsibly.
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