Before we begin looking ahead to 2027, OTM is looking back at 2026, highlighting some of the biggest, strangest, and most memorable moments of a memorable season. Today, we look at a game that came to symbolize the team's limp September.
We were still coming down from the high. 32-5 was a bit in the rearview on the first day of September, but Fenway was still rocking every night, as it had all summer. I was fortunate enough to be there for the first game at home after the Summer Solstice, when the Red Sox beat the Yankees to start that 37-game stretch. I was unfortunate enough to be there for the Jedixson Paez game, which was the unofficial end to my summer and, in many ways, the Red Sox 2026 season.
The Sox arrived at Fenway for a quick three-game home series, coming off losing 3-of-4 in the Bronx. Now four games behind the Yankees in the standings, with four weeks to go, the odds were not in their favor to flip the fourth and fifth seeds to get a home game at Fenway for the first time since 2021. That being said, this had not been an ordinary season, and if the team played with the same sense of urgency in September as they had with their season (and jobs) on the line all summer, it could be done. Hell, they had just made up 14 games in the standings in six weeks' worth of games, cutting a 14.5-game deficit to the Yankees on June 25th down to a 1/2 game apart on August 7th. Four games should be child's play.
In the first game against the Mariners, the Fenway Magic continued. Boston trailed 8-5 entering the bottom of the eighth inning, around the time that Tarps Off in the crowd usually peaked. Julio Rodriguez overran a fly ball; combined with three RBI from Trevor Story (including a walk-off in extra innings) and another improbable W was in the books.
And then the calendar turned to September.
"Wait 'til you see this place. It's complete madness, every night," I told my friends who hadn't been to a game with me at Fenway since the Spring. They were treated to a Jedixson Paez start. Sure, the Red Sox needed to build an extra rest day in for the starting pitchers who were approaching, or had already surpassed, career highs in innings. But they were still in a pennant race and had won plenty of games when they were underdogs on paper for months. The urgency will still be there, right?
The game started in the same way that it usually did – with a Mickey Gasper home run in the first inning. It tied the game at 1, his seventh home run in two weeks, sandwiched around a Bad Karma demotion. Then, in the top of the second inning against Paez, the Mariners went: Double, Single, Walk, Sac Fly, Single, 3-run Home Run.
6-1 Mariners. No one getting loose in the bullpen!
Top of the 3rd: Groundout, Single, Single, Single, Walk. No one getting loose in the bullpen! They've thrown in the towel!!
Paez gave up two doubles in the fourth inning before mercifully being replaced by Wyatt Olds in an 8-to-1 game. Final line: 3 2/3 IP, 10 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR.
The 'pen did what they did for most of the season. They allowed just one run over the remaining 5 1/3 innings and would have kept the team in the game for a comeback, as the Sox added runs in the late innings to force closer Andres Munoz into the game to close out a 9-6 win for the Mariners.
As September unfolded, the Paez start was a microcosm of a month where the team was never able to get their foot back on the gas pedal. Health was prioritized all month, while, somehow, they got more unhealthy. The team didn't care about many of the games, so the crowd didn't care about many of the games, and the energy rarely returned to the park, finishing 12-12 on the month. Their final win of the season was a Friday Night at Fenway where, of all people, Jedixson Paez was recalled to throw five shutout innings and was credited with the win in relief. It was a great moment of redemption for a pitcher who unfairly had his debut in Boston turn into a circus that he hadn't asked for.
Grabbing the best ticket in town on September 1st treated you to the 2026 version of the Kyle Barraclough Game . Refunds were deserved for the 35,758 in attendance. For whatever reason, I haven't gotten mine yet.
