You know how sometimes you hear a statistic that seems so outrageous that you have to dig into the details and verify it yourself? Well, Chris Cotillo dropped one of those last night when he tweeted this after the Red Sox’s 1-0 win in ten innings:
Now let’s be clear, the Red Sox don’t always win when they wear these uniforms (they’re 7-5 overall on the greens at Fenway), but when they do, they always come away with a win. For more context on how outrageous this Cotillo statistic is, let’s think about how common departures are across the MLB landscape. On average, teams have managed about seven forfeits per season over the past 30 years, but since you can only achieve one forfeit at home and you only win on average a little more than half of those 81 games each season, the odds of any random home win being a forfeit are actually about one in six. (Think somewhere in the ballpark of about seven times out of 42, for the sake of simplicity.)
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So now let’s apply the math. The odds of hitting something with a one in six chance seven times in a row? One in 279,936. That’s the absurdity of what the Red Sox are doing with these green uniforms!
So, with something so rare and majestic going on, let’s relive the magic up to this point, starting with the Red Sox’ first outing in these uniforms in May of last year:
Saturday May 24th: Red Sox 6, Orioles 5
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The streak began in a rather unusual and innocuous manner, with no real signs of what was to come. The Red Sox actually lost their first game wearing these green uniforms on May 16 against Atlanta, but their mere presence must have sparked something in the old stadium, because the next night, the Red Sox (again in their usual uniforms) came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat the Braves 7-6 in walk-off fashion.
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The next time they were scheduled to wear the green uniforms was the following Friday, May 23, but bad weather interrupted the start of a four-game series against the Orioles and postponed Thursday’s game, completely reshuffling the deck. As a result, the Sox ended up playing a doubleheader on Saturday, and the first game played that day became the green uniform game of the series, which is the highlight of the finals you see above.
Three weeks later, a more traditional pattern would begin to establish itself.
Friday June 13th: Red Sox 2, Yankees 1
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Like most things that become a big deal, the Red Sox’s winning streak on the greens should have been snapped before it started. This is the game where Garrett Crochet almost pitched a complete shutout, but Aaron Judge caught him with a game-tying home run in the ninth. With context, we now know that all he did was allow Carlos Narváez to continue his green streak of starts in extras.
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Friday, July 11th: Red Sox 5, Lightning 4
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If there is a distinctive set in these uniforms, I would say this is it. Between the way this ninth inning played out, the way the win was also part of a four-game sweep and a ten-game winning streak, the way Roman Anthony walked, the way this ball was absolutely hit, the fact that this might be Dave O’Brien’s best decision, and of course, the way Ceddanne Rafaela reacted, it was all pure cinema!
Friday August 1street: Red Sox 2, Astros 1
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What would an electric Red Sox run be like without Roman Anthony right in the middle of it? He had been in the majors for less than two months at this point and looked incredibly comfortable throughout this entire at-bat.
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Friday August 15th: Red Sox 2, Marlins 1
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I think this is the point where people really started to take notice of the green uniforms and their exit magic. The summer wasn’t even over and the Sox had gone five times with a team that only made its debut in May.
Friday September 26th: Red Sox 4, Tigers 3
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This was the perfect explanatory point for a season that brought Boston back to the playoffs for the first time in four years. Unfortunately, no postseason games were played at Fenway Park, which obviously also means the 2025 roster ends here.
Friday, April 17: Red Sox 1, Tigers 0
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But with a new season, we have a continuation of the streak. The Red Sox wore their green for the first time in 2026 last night, and so far, things seem to be continuing. It’s also a fun detail that the guy wearing number 7 landed the hit that extended this streak to seven.
So, with that, you might be wondering… “When will the Red Sox play in their green uniforms again?” Well, as long as they follow their usual pattern, it will be in their next home game on Friday night, which is scheduled for May 1 against the Astros. If they win again that night for the eighth time wearing green, that one in 279,936 from above will become one in 1,679,616. A religion could be started from this.