BOSTON – Less than two weeks into the season, we have reached the point where the Red Sox are, on a daily basis, experiencing the baseball equivalent of Murphy’s Law.
If something can go wrong, it will .
For the first week or so, the offense was the main culprit, with the team averaging just over two runs per contest. The Sox weren’t hitting with runners in scoring position, they weren’t hitting homers. Heck, they weren’t hitting, period.
The last two games, there’s been a temporary reversal of that problem. The Red Sox scored six runs Sunday and matched that total again Monday night against the Milwaukee Brewers .
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But in keeping with the notion that something else can always rear its ugly head, the Sox dropped both games by identical scores: 8-6. They are the leaky boat which fixes one hole only to spring another.
On Sunday, the Sox couldn’t pitch. On Monday, they added defense to their list of maladies.
The Sox issued eight walks Monday and for the second straight day, fumbled away an early multi-run lead. They led the Brewers 3-0 after three Monday night, but in a fourth inning that was both nightmarish and cartoonish at once, they allowed four runs to a team that failed to get the ball out of the infield.
That’s not easy to do. Unless, of course, you’re the 2026 Red Sox, who specialize in such things.
“We have to pitch for us to get to .500 and go to where we want to go. That’s the bottom line,” said Alex Cora. “We walked...eight? They had 18 at-bats with men in scoring position. It’s very hard to win that way. It’s very hard. And we didn’t make one play (with the bases loaded in the fourth, as potential double-play ball was fumbled by Caleb Durbin ). Plain and simple, we have to play better.”
“There’s a lot of stuff that is not going right for us. We’re not playing well.”
As if the physical miscues weren’t enough, the Red Sox are showing signs of mental lapses. For the second time in three days, a Red Sox reliever failed to back up home, costing the team another run. On Saturday, it was Aroldis Chapman who failed to do so; on Monday night Garrett Whitlock was the guilty party, out of position when a poor throw from Roman Anthony got by catcher Carlos Narváez . Without Whitlock behind the plate, another Milwaukee run scored.
Meanwhile, in an ominous development, a chant of “Sell the team!” rang out throughout the ballpark from those who braved the cold and the bad baseball until the late innings.
“Obviously, they’re not too happy,” said Cora. “That’s why we love it here because their expectations are up with (ours). Right now, we deserve whatever they’re thinking. We’re not playing good baseball. And we know it.”
Indeed, for now at least, the Red Sox can do little right.
For the seventh time in the first 10 games, a Red Sox starter failed to get into the sixth inning. Brayan Bello again flashed swing-and-miss stuff (17 instances this time, after 19 in his first start of the season), but that only served to drive up his pitch count. His four walks, of course, didn’t help either.
Jovani Moran heroically gave the Sox three solid innings of one-run relief, but Whitlock walked two of the first four hitters he faced in a tie game in the eighth, and then yielded a run-scoring single. Anthony’s throw from first, way off the mark, only compounded things.
Pitching and defense, thought to be a club strongpoint, have been almost non-existent.
“It’s kind of the nature of this thing,” theorized Durbin. “It’s one play, one hit, one pitch that kind of can determine which team comes out on top. Back-and-forth game today obviously, but it’s tough — you’ve got to string together all the facets of the game to come out on top. We’re grinding through that right now."
“I wouldn’t call it frustration. I would call it, we’re thinking of ways to win,” said Willson Contreras , who was on base five times and engaged in a heated conversation with the Brewers after being hit by a pitch in the third inning . “How can we get better on the field? What details are getting out of hands that we’re not seeing. I think that’s our mindset right now.
“There’s a lot of games left. The season is until October. But we need to find a focus right now.”
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