Of all the off-the-wall baseball statistics we’ve seen this year, this one about the Red Sox and their yellow uniforms might just rank at the top. Well, at the top of the non-Shohei Ohtani statistics, because what he’s doing continues to remain insane.
The Red Sox are 22-4 all-time when wearing their City Connect jerseys, which made their debut in the 2021 campaign. They’ve won their past 10 games wearing the yellow uniforms, including all six games this year. The 6-2 victory at Fenway Park against Kansas City — on a walk-off grand slam by Pablo Reyes — was just the latest triumph.
The yellow-and-blue color scheme comes from the official colors of the Boston Marathon. With the team's close connection to the fabled race, Nike made the decision to go with a radical color change when it created Boston's City Connect uniform.
That 22-4 record plays out to an incredible .846 winning percentage, which is a 137-win pace over a 162-game season. They’re outscoring opponents 141-77 in those games. It’s really rather amazing. Over the past three seasons, the Red Sox have an .846 winning percentage when wearing the yellow uniforms, a .502 winning percentage when wearing anything else.
GRAND-SLAM WALKOFF IN BOSTON 🚨
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) August 8, 2023
🎥: @MLB pic.twitter.com/HAonv3g7BL
So, you might be wondering right about now, how many more times will the Red Sox be wearing their magical jerseys this season, as they try to push toward a playoff spot (they're 5 out of the third AL wild-card spot)? Truth is, there isn’t a set schedule. The team — players, coaches, etc — choose which uniforms they’ll wear any given game.
Traditionally, the City Connect jerseys have been worn at least two days in a row, sometimes three or four consecutive games. Manager Alex Cora was asked if the club would wear the uniforms again on Tuesday after Monday’s dramatic victory. He basically channelled Crash Davis with his answer.
Cora on the Sox' uniforms tomorrow: "We ain't changing."
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) August 8, 2023
Baseball players and coaches didn’t need to watch Bull Durham to know that you have to respect a winning streak.
Why might that 22-4 record look familiar to Red Sox fans? Probably because that was Rick Porcello’s record the year he won the AL Cy Young award.
It stands out because it was so unique. And, yes, pitcher W/L records are mostly worthless. I know this, and I’ve trumpeted that idea for years. But to prove a point here, consider: Going back to the 1880s, there have been only 11 pitchers (Porcello and 10 others) with at least 26 decisions finish a season with a winning percentage of .846 or better. When Old Hoss Radbourn won 60 games in 1884 with a 1.38 ERA, his winning percentage was “only” .833, at 60-12. When Walter Johnson had a 1.14 ERA in 1913, he had a 36-7 record, falling just short of the mark at .837.
Hell, when Bob Gibson set the record with his 1.12 ERA in 1968, the Cardinals went just 24-10, a .706 winning percentage. Gibson’s record: 22-9.
“How he lost nine games that year,” Bob Costas told me this summer, “is an enduring mystery.”
It’s a mystery right up there with this: How does an otherwise mediocre Red Sox club become unbeatable when wearing yellow?
Some things, we’ll just never know.
