A season full of firsts, breakouts, and Fenway chaos made narrowing it down to three moments anything but easy.
With Christmas upon us, it’s only natural that we look back at the year that was for the Boston Red Sox, who were able to advance to the postseason for the first time since 2021.
Even though the season ended in disappointing fashion with a Game 3 loss at Yankee Stadium in the Wild Card Round, it’s important to remember how fun the 2025 season was for Red Sox Nation.
You had the emergence of a true ace in Garrett Crochet.
You had the future face of the franchise emerge in Roman Anthony.
You had highlight catches all season long from Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu.
You had a Renaissance for Trevor Story.
You had a rookie catcher burst on the scene in a massive way in Carlos Narvaez.
You had the electric debuts of Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.
You had guys like Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello have upstart seasons that helped power the team towards that elusive playoff appearance.
You had Aroldis Chapman emerge as the best closer in the American League at age 37.
Over the course of 162, there are probably a dozen more moments I’m blanking on.
2025 was a rich text, making the exercise of ranking the top three moments from the season a difficult task.
With that said, I gave it my best shot.
We’ll go from three to one:
3. Rafaela’s Walk-Off Pushes Win Streak to 8 (July 11, 2025)
The win streak eventually made it to 10 games leading into the All-Star break, but this was the standout moment of that run for Boston - the stretch of games this sumer that announced to both the region and the rest of baseball that this team was legit.
I think people forget that Alex Bregman was injured for this run of wins, too, making what they were able to accomplish even more impressive.
But to focus on this walk-off winner for a second, here was the scenario:
After losing Hunter Dobbins after just five outs with what was eventually diagnosed as a torn ACL, Boston was down 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th with Anthony up at the plate.
As he had already shown over the course of the first month of his career, Anthony exercised excellent plate discipline by drawing a five-pitch walk, setting up Rafaela for what would be his signature offensive moment of the first half of the season.
The 24-year-old hit a bomb over the Green Monster, the two-run homer sent Fenway into a frenzy, and it felt like, for a moment, the Red Sox may never lose a game again.
The young stars of this team were powering this charge for Boston, and it gave Red Sox fans real hope for the future of the franchise for the first time since winning the World Series in 2018.
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2. Red Sox Clinch Playoff Berth (September 26, 2025)
It had been a very, very long three years.
I know that sounds spoiled to say - but when you have a franchise win four World Series titles from 2004 to 2018, that type of entitlement can set in.
From 2019 to 2024, the Red Sox managed just one playoff appearance - a fluky run to the 2021 ALCS with an incredibly shaky pitching staff and a rental power hitter in Kyle Schwarber.
There just hasn’t been a lot of playoff baseball to go around at Fenway the last half-decade, so this moment was a massive sigh of relief for Red Sox fans, especially given that this was a team full of youth with a star at the top of the pitching staff.
That 4-3 win over the Tigers was a special night at the ballpark, regardless of how the postseason played out.
1. Garrett Crochet Pitches The Game Of His Life (September 30, 2025)
In Game 1 of their Wild Card series against the Yankees in the Bronx, the Red Sox got the best game of their Cy Young runner-up’s life.
Here’s what my colleague Brady Frakas wrote about the iconic performance back in October:
“Crochet was absolutely dominant over 7.2 innings. The burly left-hander, who was acquired for moments just like this, struck out 11 while walking no one. He gave up just four hits and one earned run.
“A Cy Young possibility in the AL, Crochet hit 100.2 MPH on his final pitch of the night -- 117.”
For a moment, it felt like the Red Sox were about to steamroll the Yankees on their home turf. Watching that New York offense cower away at the hands of Boston’s 26-year-old made the Bronx Bombers look like a team that was dead in the water.
Unfortunately for Boston fans, that wasn’t the case, as the Red Sox ended up assuming that role the next two days instead.
Regardless of the outcome of that series, this was a moment Sox fans should be able to look back on and say, ‘That was awesome.’
In theory, this should be a window into a decade-ish run of Crochet dominating the AL in postseason play.
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Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.