{"id":810284,"date":"2026-09-21T03:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810284\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T03:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T03:45:18","slug":"red-sox-clinch-playoff-spot-bounce-back-after-horrid-start-to-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/810284\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Clinch Playoff Spot, Bounce Back After Horrid Start To Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Boston Red Sox<\/a> celebrated an improbable postseason berth at Tropicana Field, with Champagne and beer flowing all around, the clubhouse soundtrack seemed appropriate.<\/p>\n

“Stayin\u2019 Alive.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

“I think that pretty much says it all,\u2019\u2019 left fielder Roman Anthony<\/a> said Sunday. “We pretty much stayed alive when nobody else thought we could. Now here we are.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

The Red Sox were 32-46 and 15 1\/2 games back in the AL East race on June 24. They have since gone 52-25 and will be in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox lost 5-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays<\/a> in their series finale, so couldn\u2019t take care of things themselves. But about an hour after the game finished, the Houston Astros<\/a> lost 4-2 to the Atlanta Braves<\/a>, allowing the Red Sox to secure a wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shortly after the Astros-Braves result went final, Red Sox players, coaches and staff members gathered near the Tropicana Field mound for a team photograph.<\/p>\n

“I really don\u2019t care how we got in, as long as we got in,\u2019\u2019 shortstop Trevor Story<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Interim manager Chad Tracy was in place for much of the turnaround. Since being appointed on April 26 following the dismissal of Alex Cora, the Red Sox have gone 74-55.<\/p>\n

“Look, we were not in a good spot,\u2019\u2019 Tracy said. “We were not playing good ball. But it shows you that if you stick to it, good things can happen. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of this group.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

First baseman Willson Contreras<\/a> said he kept the faith, even when things trended downward, and the reward was sweet.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s hard not to have some tears over this,\u2019\u2019 Contreras said. “It\u2019s a great accomplishment, but I don\u2019t want this team to stop here. I want to keep going. We have proven that you can get hot and overcome a lot of big odds<\/a>.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Reporting by The Associated Press.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Boston Red Sox celebrated an improbable postseason berth at Tropicana Field, with Champagne and beer flowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":810285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,684,48,19,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,793,1035,409],"class_list":["post-810284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-betting","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-roman-anthony","tag-trevor-story","tag-willson-contreras"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117306977373632022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=810284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/810284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/810285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=810284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=810284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=810284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}