BOSTON — The sound off the bat said it all: Tyler O’Neil’s line drive to left was going to lift the Baltimore Orioles to a ninth-inning tie with the Boston Red Sox in this tense, back-and-forth Battle of the Winning Streaks Monday night at Fenway Park.But then the sound off the bat was snuffed out by the roar of the masses as Red Sox shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng, all 5-foot-8 of him, leaped into the air to turn O’Neil’s would-be single into a game-ending out. Red Sox 6, Orioles 5.Baltimore’s winning streak ended at seven games. Boston’s winning streak was extended to 14. And that means from the moment you’re reading this until first pitch Tuesday night, a whole lot of hardball historians are going to be sorting through dusty scrapbooks for intel on the hard-charging 1946 Red Sox and the club record 15-game winning streak they amassed from April 25 to May 10. These Red Sox are not those Red Sox, even if the ’26 version ties the record with a 15th straight victory Tuesday night, with the Orioles again providing the opposition. C’mon. The ’46 Red Sox featured Ted Williams, who had completed his service to his country in World War II to assume his place as the greatest hitter that ever lived. They had another future Hall of Famer in slugging second baseman Bobby Doerr, returning from a year in the Army. They had shortstop Johnny Pesky, also back from the war. Picking right up where he left off before putting his Red Sox uni aside for three years in Navy blue, Pesky would register his third straight season with 200-plus hits. Dominic DiMaggio, Joltin’ Joe’s kid brother, was a nifty center fielder who hit .316 that year. He, too, was returning after three years in the Navy. But while reading up on the 1946 Red Sox late Monday night, I was stunned, and amused, when I came across a column by the esteemed Harold Kaese of the Boston Globe. Seems Kaese had done some canvassing of players and managers beyond Boston and came up with this conclusion: It would be good for baseball if the Red Sox won the pennant.2026 Aces Project update: MLB insiders rank starting pitchersAndy McCulloughSee, “1918” was just as big a deal in those days as it was when Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Rice and Wade Boggs were playing for the Red Sox.