The Boston Red Sox had some high expectations going into the 2026 season. Projected by most as a World Series contender, the Red Sox start to the year has been more than a little disappointing to say the least. Granted, things are starting to look up after their recent series win against the Milwaukee Brewers. However, a 4–8 record and last place in the AL East is still disappointing. Here are a couple reasons as to why the Red Sox are underperforming.
Opposition Forcing More Pitches
The biggest perceived strength of the Boston Red Sox this year was their starting rotation. Adding Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray to a rotation with Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello looked to cement the Red Sox as possibly the best rotation in baseball. However, it seems like the blueprint for how to beat the Red Sox has been exposed. That problem is making the starters throw loads of pitches early.
The problem has even extended to Crochet a bit. After his Opening Day win against the Cincinnati Reds, Crochet threw 93 and 107 pitches respectively in his next two starts, in which he went five and 6 1/3 innings in those starts.
All four of the Red Sox wins on the season have come when their starters have pitched five or more innings. However, its only happened six times in their first 12 games. Suarez and Bello have yet to go five innings in any of their four combined starts.
Two Many Batters Fanning
One big issue plaguing the lineup this year has been strikeouts. The Red Sox struck out at the eighth-highest rate in all of the majors last season. Currently, they sit above the league average in that category, 12th to be exact. However, their series against the Houston Astros put a big spotlight on that problem. The Red Sox struck out 12 times in the series opener, and 13 times each in the second and third games of the series.
They did improve on that in their latest series against the Brewers. The Red Sox had their best offensive games on the year thus far when they limited their strikeouts. In all fairness, the middle game of the series, they went against Jacob Misiorowski, who’s growing into one of the brightest stars on the mound before our very eyes. Sometimes, you just can’t avoid it.
It also doesn’t help that nearly every hitter outside of Wilyer Abreu struggled out of the gate. It notably took Caleb Durbin six games to get his first hit on the season. Roman Anthony struggled for a bit after going 3-for-4 in the season opener against the Reds. For as much as Willson Contreras was getting on base, it took him some time to get his bat going. Despite recording a hit in his last four games, Trevor Story‘s OPS+ still sits at 16. Keep in mind, 100 is league average.
Looking Ahead
The rest of the team has seemingly taken this rotten stretch of play in stride with their series win over the Brewers. Now, they look to notch a three-game series win against another NL Central team in the St. Louis Cardinals, which starts Friday at 8:15 pm Eastern.
More Boston Red Sox Articles
More MLB Articles
- Category
-
Boston Red Sox
