Ahh … Opening Day. You remember Opening Day, right? The kids were leading the way at the plate, Garrett Crochet was dominating on the mound, and the 2026 Red Sox appeared to be carrying the proper level of energy and commitment into a season that carries with it some real expectations.
The vibes, as the youth might say, were immaculate. Now just a week later, they’re in the toilet.
As a result, the atmosphere is sure to be just a little bit dampened Friday afternoon when Fenway Park hosts its first game of the 2026 season.
After the nearly perfect 3-0 win over the Reds to start the season, they got a bad Sonny Gray start and an extra-inning loss, a bullpen breakdown on Sunday, a Ranger Suárez crash landing in Houston, a Brayan Bello dud on Tuesday and an uncharacteristically ineffective outing from Crochet in the series finale. All the while, the Red Sox’ offense has been borderline nonexistent, plating just 17 runs in six games while batting .208 with a .642 OPS as a team. (If you separate Wilyer Abreu‘s .417 average and 1.334 OPS, the picture is even worse.)
Throw in a mysterious Carlos Narvaez benching on Wednesday, some terrible uses of the ABS challenge system, and an unforgivable situation of Alex Cora not knowing the count during what should have been a strikeout in Tuesday’s loss, and the opening six-pack of games has gone worse than anybody could have imagined.
That being said, there’s nothing lamer in sports than anyone who wants to light their hair on fire while ranting and raving about THE SEASON BEING OVAH when the calendar has barely hit April.
Things are bad, yes. But are they sustainably bad? That’s what we’ll try to tackle here, in an effort to determine which of the early-season issues might get better, and which ones might stick around for the long haul. And because every story needs a hook, this one will have a rating system of one to five Roenickes. (Why Roenickes? Well, with all due respect to the baseball lifer, Ron Roenicke managed the 2020 Red Sox, a team we all knew was DOA when the season began. Any doubts or critiques you held toward the team when the season began in late July ended up being as bad as expected or even worse. Ergo, the more Roenickes on the rating scale, the more worrisome the issue for the remaining 156 games in the season.)
The issue: Starting Pitching
Rating: 1.5 Roenickes
With one turn through the rotation plus one more Crochet start, the collective work of the starting rotation has been brutal.
