The Boston Red Sox capped off their first four-game sweep of the New York Yankees since 2018 with an epic two-run comeback in the 10th inning on Sunday night. The four-game winning streak represents the team's longest stretch of the season, and for the first time, it feels like Boston has real momentum building towards the run that both interim manager Chad Tracy and Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow have been alluding to. 

What was most encouraging about the Red Sox' sweep of New York was that they won games in the way that they were constructed to, through strong pitching and defense, getting incredible performances from all four of their starters in the series. 

The foursome of Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Jake Bennett and Sonny Gray allowed only three earned runs on 10 hits while striking out 28 and walking only 6 across 26.2 innings pitched. All three of Tolle, Bennett, and Gray carried no hit performances into at least the fifth inning, with Gray carrying his hitless bid into the eighth inning in Sunday night's win. 

The series against the Yankees is just the most recent in a ridiculous run for the Red Sox rotation of 11 straight quality starts, the second-longest stretch in franchise history. Boston starters have posted a league-low 2.23 ERA in 91 innings through the stretch, as the team has gone 7-4 to climb to only 4.5 back of the final wild card spot in an incredibly average American League. 

Since the firing of former manager Alex Cora, Breslow has remained steadfast in his belief that his team was only one stretch of strong play from getting back in the American League playoff race. "We can believe in our players and know that we're capable of playing better," Breslow told WEEI's The Greg Hill Show on Friday morning. "We have to win a lot of baseball games, and we don't have a ton of time to do it. I believe that we're capable of doing it,” he continued. 

Interim manager Chad Tracy has also echoed those sentiments in his weekly appearance on WEEI's Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson Show, saying, "because the American League hasn't performed well, it's not an outrageous thing to think about...so we're in a day-to-day mindset." 

According to Fangraphs, the Red Sox enter Monday's series opener against the Washington Nationals with a 17.5 percent chance of making the playoffs, the highest chance the site has given to Boston since June 8. 

"There’s a long way to go... We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we have some momentum now," Tracy said after Sunday's win. "Maybe the best momentum we’ve had. We’ve just got to keep riding it for as long as we can," he continued.

The Red Sox offense has a golden opportunity to keep the good feelings rolling and extend their winning streak to five against the struggling pitching staff of the Washington Nationals, which will enter Monday night's series opener with a 4.70 team ERA through 85 games, the sixth-highest mark in baseball. 

It will be Miles Mikolas (2-6, 5.24 ERA) on the mound for Washington opposite Ranger Suárez (3-3, 2.83 ERA) for Boston as the Red Sox and Nationals kick off a three-game set from Fenway Park. First pitch set for 7:10 p.m. ET. 

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