BOSTON -- There was no hotter team across Major League Baseball than the Boston Red Sox, who entered the All-Star break having won 14 of their last 16 games to get back within the American League playoff picture. As the Red Sox get set to kick off the unofficial second half with a doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays, here are three second-half storylines to follow: 

As noted by Boston Sports Gordo of the Play Tessie Podcast, the Red Sox have a penchant for getting hot heading into the break and being unable to sustain that momentum into the second half. After going on a 10-game winning streak before the 2025 All-Star festivities, Boston went just 1-4 after the break, a trend that has persisted in each of the last three seasons. 

Through their nine-game winning streak, the Red Sox pitching staff has stood tall, posting a league-low 1.54 ERA. But the offense has more than held its own as well, posting a 111 weighted runs created plus (wRC+), good for the 10th highest in baseball. Though it hasn’t been the Red Sox' biggest bats that have provided the spark, it’s instead come from role players like Caleb Durbin, Anthony Seigler, and Andruw Monasterio. 

If Monasterio and Seigler are unable to continue their hot streaks, the Red Sox will need a pair of struggling veterans, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu, to step up and produce. Since June 1, Duran is hitting .152/.212/.248/.460, while Abreu has hit only .221/.303/.427/.730 in that span. 

The Red Sox pitching staff has proven they are capable of sustained success; the offense has yet to do so, and that will be a key for the team’s success in the second half. 

Thanks to injuries, the Red Sox have relied heavily on a trio of rookie starters, Payton Tolle, Connelly Early and Jake Bennett, all three of whom have performed incredibly, combining for a 3.22 ERA over 223 innings. 

As a result of the increased pressure being placed on them to perform at the major league level, all three are rapidly approaching the most innings they have pitched in their careers. Typically, teams wouldn’t want to have their arms exceed a 20 percent increase in innings pitched in a given year. 

How the team handles the workloads of Tolle, Early, and Bennett will be closely monitored in the second half of the season. It may come down to whether the Red Sox even have the pitching depth to manage their innings as they approach career highs. 

Heading into the season, there were no two players more important to the Red Sox' success than Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony, both of whom are currently on the 60-day injured list. 

The 27-year-old Crochet is coming off a 2025 season in which he threw a career-high 205.1 innings en route to a second-place finish in American League Cy Young voting. However, his results in 2026 were not up to par as he struggled to a 6.30 ERA over six starts before landing on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation on April 27. 

Like Crochet, Anthony struggled in 2026, hitting only .229/.354/.321/.675 in 30 games before tearing a ligament in his right ring finger during the Red Sox' May 4 win in Detroit. 

After appearing to make progress in their recoveries, both Anthony and Crochet suffered setbacks in their quest to return and have yet to resume full baseball activities. 

The Red Sox have done a great job of staying afloat while their two most important players have been out of the lineup; however, any postseason success the team hopes to achieve likely hinges on their ability to return to the field and contribute. 

The Red Sox are 46-48 and in third place in the American League East. 

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