Boston Red Sox
There have been few positives to draw out of Boston’s 1-5 start to the 2026 season.
Alex Cora and the Red Sox have struggled out of the gate this season. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
April 2, 2026 | 6:41 PM
5 minutes to read
Alex Cora and the Red Sox are hoping for some home cooking on Friday when Boston returns to Fenway Park for Opening Day against the San Diego Padres.
On April 1, Cora’s club already found itself mired in a five-game losing streak, with Wednesday’s series sweep at the hands of the Astros dropping Boston’s record to 1-5 on the year.
It’s the worst start for Boston since 2019, and a disheartening showing for a Red Sox club seemingly poised to build off of last year’s playoff appearance.
“We know we can be good,” Trevor Story told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier after Wednesday’s loss in Houston. “It’s just about us, the players, to make the adjustments that we need to make. We have time on our side, but there’s urgency, for sure, that this is unacceptable.”
Boston still has 156 games to right the ship — with a return to its home ballpark standing as an immediate remedy for a roster currently out of sorts.
But, while the Red Sox still have an extended runway in front of them, there were several worrying trends during their road trips to Cincinnati and Houston.
Lackluster pitching
As we noted on Thursday, Boston’s mantra of being a “run prevention” juggernaut in 2026 has looked like a major whiff through the first go-around of the Red Sox’ starting rotation.
Even with a lackluster start from Garrett Crochet on Wednesday in Houston (five runs allowed in five innings), Sox fans shouldn’t raise any alarms about the 2025 AL Cy Young Award runner-up.
It’s the personnel behind him in Boston’s rotation — a segment of the roster that Craig Breslow and the rest of Boston’s top brass focused their efforts toward bolstering this offseason — that has raised sizable concerns.
In total, Boston’s starting rotation is sporting a 5.22 ERA, while the Red Sox’ entire pitching corps ranks dead-last in baseball in home runs per nine innings (1.93), 26th overall in team ERA (4.91), 25th in WHIP (1.48), and 21st in walks per nine innings (4.03).
Plenty of Boston’s offseason maneuvering was rooted in giving Crochet some help in the rotation, with the Red Sox trading for both Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo before signing veteran southpaw Ranger Suarez.
So far this season, that trio of arms has surrendered 11 earned runs over 12 total innings of work.
The 2026 Red Sox already have enough question marks regarding their roster composition and offensive capabilities. If an expected pillar of their success in terms of pitching crumbles, this club could collapse.
A sluggish start for Boston’s new bats
Alex Bregman isn’t walking through that door. Rafael Devers isn’t walking through that door.
There was an evident need for Boston to bolster its lineup this offseason after its pop at the plate fizzled out last fall.
Instead, Breslow and Co. opted to augment the Red Sox’ batting order in an attempt to replicate some of that lost production in the aggregate — rather than giving players like Roman Anthony some proven protection with sluggers like Pete Alonso or … well, Bregman.
Willson Contreras — acquired via trade from the Cardinals as a potential replacement for Bregman’s right-handed power at the plate — is just 3-for-20 to open his Red Sox career with six strikeouts.
At third base, Boston let Bregman walk in free agency and replaced him with Caleb Durbin, who finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting last season.
The 5-foot-6 infielder wasn’t expected to be a potent slugger in Boston, but rather a connective cog in the lineup who works the count, limits strikeouts, and passes the baton to the next man up in the order. So far this year, he’s 0-for-18 with five strikeouts over five games.
Not ideal.
Lackluster defense
If the Red Sox are going to lean into being a “run prevention” unit, they will have to shore up a defense that led baseball with 116 errors during the 2025 campaign.
So far, that hasn’t been the case. Boston has been knocked for six errors over its first six games.
“I just hesitated,” Story said Wednesday after he let a routine ground ball slip under his glove, leading to an unearned run. “And there’s no room for that. It was similar to a play last night, where I was aggressive when I played through it, and I got rewarded for that. But can’t be defensive out there.”
If Story — who has two errors in six games — continues to labor with his range and throws over to first, the case can be made that both he and second baseman Marcelo Mayer need to swap spots in the infield.
Poor plate discipline, situational hitting
The fears of Boston’s lineup taking a step back following the offseason exit of Bregman have been evident through the first week of action, with Boston collectively batting just .208 so far in 2026.
If the Red Sox aren’t going to be a club whose run-scoring production is rooted in homers, they’re going to have to grind out at-bats and cash in on prime opportunities to plate runners in scoring position.
The good news? Boston has six home runs through six games — three courtesy of Wilyer Abreu.
But, Boston’s plate discipline has still been brutal to start the year, with the Red Sox striking out on a whopping 29.4 percent of their at-bats through six games — the fourth-worst strikeout percentage in baseball.
As noted by Baseball Savant, the Red Sox also have the third-worst whiff rate in MLB at 32.7 percent.
Boston’s knack for going down hacking at the plate has also contributed to their struggles with runners in scoring position.
According to @RedSoxStats, Boston ranks 30th in baseball in RBI, 29th in on-base percentage, and 28th in batting average during at-bats with runners in scoring position this season.
While Abreu is 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles and two RBI with RISP, the rest of Boston’s lineup is 5-for-37 with 15 strikeouts in those situations.
After making the most of MLB’s new ABS challenges in their season-opening win against the Reds, Boston hasn’t exactly capitalized on the added rules — with Red Sox batters going 2-for-5 on ball-strike challenges and routinely wasting critical calls early in games.
Star players struggling
As promising as Roman Anthony’s future might be in the big leagues, the Red Sox were asking a lot of their 21-year-old outfielder when it comes to being the key driver in Boston’s lineup this season.
That pressure put on Anthony’s shoulders — coupled with the lack of protection behind him in the lineup — has led to a slow start for the star this season.
Even with his solo shot in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s loss to Houston, Anthony is 5-for-22 (.227) with 11 strikeouts through six games. He struck out four times in Tuesday’s loss against the Astros, with Houston ace Hunter Brown striking him out three times on the minimum nine pitches.
Anthony should be fine as this season goes along. But, it’s an indictment on the rest of the Red Sox lineup that Boston’s offense dries up when Anthony — with just 77 games of big-league experience under his belt — isn’t mashing at the plate.
It doesn’t help that the next men up in Boston’s lineup in Story (.138 batting average, 13 strikeouts), DH Jarren Duran (.167 batting average), and Contreras (.150 batting average) aren’t pulling on the rope after Anthony’s turn in the leadoff spot.
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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