It was supposed to be another chapter in the Red Sox’s July fairytale. Winners of ten of their last eleven, Boston had clawed its way back into the playoff hunt and reignited Fenway Park’s summer fire. The vibes were real. The crowd was locked in. And now, in the Cubs’ town, this looked like another chance to flex that rare feat of a 10-game winning streak entering the ASG. Tigers (1935), Reds (1975), and Mariners (2022) are the only three teams in that club.

But baseball has a cruel way of flipping the script; sometimes, all it takes is one moment of hesitation.

In the fifth inning Friday night, that moment arrived. A routine blooper floated into shallow left-center. Alex Bregman drifted back. Jarren Duran charged forward. Neither called it. Neither took charge. The ball plopped between them and skipped to the wall as the crowd gasped. What should’ve been an easy out turned into a gift double for Chicago.

“Bregman and Duran miss one and it’s a free double for the Cubs,” tweeted Boston Strong, summing up the collective frustration. Within minutes, fans flooded the replies, echoing the same sentiment: ‘We’re cooked.’ ‘This team ain’t built for October.’

The irony? Boston has been playing some of its best baseball since late June. They’ve gotten strong starts from Walker Buehler and surprising clutch hitting from depth bats. But one moment of indecision, especially from a veteran like Bregman, reignited long-standing doubts.

Bregman, of course, isn’t fully healthy. His quad strain from May never quite let go, and it shows. He’s moving tentatively, almost like he’s trying not to reinjure himself. But in Boston, especially when you’re making $120 million, sympathy is scarce to come by.

Jarren Duran, on the other hand, has had his share of fielding lapses before. This wasn’t his first miscommunication. But fans expected Bregman, brought in for leadership, to take control in moments like that. Instead, it became a snapshot of dysfunction.

The Red Sox didn’t implode after the error. Not immediately. But something shifted. That invincible vibe was gone. The Cubs broke the Red Sox’s winning streak with 4-1 showing on the scoreboard.

This team still has time. The math isn’t fatal. But after that blunder, the mood has changed. Fans aren’t just doubting the defense, they’re starting to question the dream itself. And all it took was one ball, and no one wanted enough.

The Red Sox went from cheers to groans in seconds

The fallout was instant and brutal. As the ball hit the grass, so did the fans’ patience. Social media buzzed with surprise and irony, as a growing feeling of frustration. It wasn’t just about one play; it was about what that play represented. For a fanbase desperate to believe this late-July run is real, the Bregman-Duran mishap felt like a gut punch. Suddenly, hope turned into here we go again.

“THERE’S the real Red Sox, not that 10-game win streak sham” cuts deeper than sarcasm. It speaks to a lingering skepticism that’s never quite left this fanbase. Some fans have seen the winning streak as a bit deceiving. Impressive, at a glance, but lacking in real substance when you delve deeper. When Bregman and Duran mishandled that catch and missed an opportunity, it seemed to validate the concerns of those who worry that behind all the positivity of this run hides the familiar issue of inconsistency, the same mental lapses that have haunted Boston all season.

“Every f—ing year after the All-Star break.” This isn’t just venting, it’s muscle memory. In 2022, Boston started the break with a 48–45 score, holding onto hopes of making it to the playoffs. But ended up collapsing with a finish of 30–39, which saw them at the bottom of the AL East. A year earlier in 2021, they were riding high at 55–36 but faced a rough patch of a 37–34 post-break record, nearly missing October altogether. Now, this year feels like déjà vu.

“And here starts our 10-game losing streak,” doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the voice of a fan who’s seen this movie too many times and already knows how it ends. In July 2022, right after the All-Star break, the Red Sox dropped 14 of their next 20 games, including a brutal 28–5 loss to Toronto that felt like a season obituary. So now, when a simple pop-up drops between Bregman and Duran in a tight game, fans don’t just see a mistake. They see a pattern beginning to repeat itself.

“They are still drunk.” This comment felt like a jab at the team’s focus, effort, and reputation for midseason meltdowns. It suggests this isn’t just a physical error, it’s a mental no-show. After the All-Star break, fans don’t just want sharper baseball; they expect it. This is the stretch where focus tightens, where contenders separate from pretenders. So when Bregman and Duran made an error, it didn’t come off as a mistake. It looked like a team still waking up from the break, like they hadn’t gotten the memo that the second half had started. Was it rust? Nerves? A little too much confidence after steamrolling weaker teams? Whatever the cause, fans saw more than just a silly error; they saw a red flag.

Another comment, “Maybe it was because we were playing easy teams,” isn’t just throwing shade. It’s pulling the thread on the entire win streak. It questions whether Boston’s recent hot streak was ever legit to begin with. Well, a chunk of Boston’s recent surge came against teams like the A’s, Rockies, and White Sox, teams nowhere near playoff caliber. So when the Cubs capitalized on a lazy miscue between Bregman and Duran, it felt like the competition finally punched back. For skeptical fans, that moment didn’t just snap the streak’s momentum; it questioned its meaning.

The Red Sox have the talent, but moments like this test the trust. If they want fans to believe again, they’ll need more than a streak; they’ll need answers.