Red Sox score four runs in first, beat Nationals for fifth straight win

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jun 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox have been waiting for a run like this all season long.

After months of spinning their wheels and stinking up the joint at Fenway Park, the Red Sox are playing their best baseball of the season. With Monday’s 6-3 win over the Washington Nationals, the club has now won a season-best five games in a row, this time riding a four-run first-inning and yet another strong starting pitching performance by Ranger Suarez to victory.

At nine games below .500, the Red Sox still have a lot of ground to make up, but for the first time in ages the prospect of a meaningful summer doesn’t feel so farfetched.

Coming into the day the Nationals boasted the most prolific offense in baseball, leading MLB in runs scored per game thanks in large part to the emergence of outfielder James Wood as a potential superstar.

Wood made his mark on the game immediately, crushing a leadoff home run 441 feet to the right-field bleachers.

But unlike large portions of the season where the Red Sox struggled to erase a deficit of any kind, Boston’s bats had a quick and decisive response Monday.

The Red Sox rode a four-run rally to surge in front, with Willson Contreras delivering the haymaker in the form of a towering three-run home run to left field. A visibly emotional Contreras, who has been deeply affected by the earthquakes that devastated his home country of Venezuela last week, uncorked a bat flip for the ages and was seen in the dugout afterward struggling to hold back tears.

Caleb Durbin capped off the rally with a solo home run of his own, his seventh of the season, to put the Red Sox up 4-1 early. Boston added a sacrifice fly by Wilyer Abreu in the second and another by Carlos Narvaez in the third to extend the lead.

Nationals starter Miles Mikolas settled down from there and retired 14 straight Red Sox batters to finish his outing, but Red Sox starter Ranger Suarez kept the dangerous Nationals lineup at bay. The left-hander kept Washington off the board until allowing a two-run double to CJ Abrams in the top of the sixth and finished his day with three runs allowed over six innings on five hits, one walk and eight strikeouts.

That marked the 12th consecutive quality start for the Red Sox starting rotation, the club’s longest streak since a franchise-record 14 straight games between April 8-25, 1988. Over the current stretch, the Red Sox starters have posted a 1.75 ERA over 77 1/3 innings.

Danny Coulombe, Tyron Guerrero and Garrett Whitlock finished the job with three scoreless innings of relief.

With the win the Red Sox improve to 37-46 on the season and have won five straight to open the homestand after previously sitting 12-25 at Fenway Park upon their return from Colorado last Thursday morning. Left-hander Connelly Early (7-5, 3.59) will get the ball Tuesday in hopes of clinching the club’s second consecutive series win.

He’ll face off against Washington’s Cade Cavalli (4-4, 4.00). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.

Contreras ejected

In the midst of the club’s early offensive eruption, a bizarre scene unfolded when Contreras was ejected from the game in the bottom of the second inning by first base umpire Nic Lentz, who appeared to feel like Contreras had shown him up.

The incident occurred after Contreras was rung up by Lentz on a checked swing for strike three. As he walked back to the dugout Contreras tapped his helmet, mimicking the gesture used to initiate an ABS challenge.

Lentz didn’t appreciate that and proceeded to toss Contreras, tapping his own head to indicate why.

The ejection led to a long discussion between Lentz and Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy, and later involved Contreras, too, who came back out of the dugout to speak to the umpire as well once he realized he’d been ejected.

The entire situation dragged on for close to three minutes, and once it became clear what had happened, NESN’s Will Middlebrooks offered a blunt assessment of Lentz’s decision.

“So basically saying I disagree and I’m challenging that and you get tossed for that? Are you kidding me?” Middlebrooks said. “How soft are we getting?”

Andruw Monasterio came on to replace Contreras at first base following the ejection.

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