Connelly Early Gave the Red Sox More Than Enough, and That’s the Problem

Connelly Early Gave the Red Sox More Than Enough, and That’s the Problem

Connelly Early Red Sox optimism got a real boost Sunday, which only made Boston’s 3-2 loss to the Reds more frustrating. If the first two games of the 2026 season felt messy in different ways, this one felt painfully familiar.

If the first two games of the 2026 Red Sox season felt messy in different ways, Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Reds felt like the most familiar kind of frustration Boston fans know.

This was a game the Red Sox absolutely could have won. It was also a game that made the same point this roster keeps hinting at early in the year. If the offense does not cash in, if the situational hitting keeps disappearing, and if the margin stays this thin, then every game is vulnerable to one bad sequence.

That is exactly what happened.

Connelly Early gave the Red Sox a strong, poised, seriously encouraging start in just the third game of the season. Wilyer Abreu stayed scorching hot and again provided Boston’s only real impact offense. Jovani Moran gave them useful innings out of the bullpen. And still, the Red Sox lost the game and the series because they could not do enough with the chances they had and because Greg Weissert made one bad pitch at exactly the wrong time.

That is not bad luck. That is bad baseball in a very specific form.

It is early, yes. It is also fair to say this was the kind of loss that explains why some people still do not fully buy into this Red Sox team.

Connelly Early Looked Like a Legitimate Big-League Starter

The best thing the Red Sox got out of Sunday was Connelly Early.

At 23 years and 360 days old, Early was already making a little team history just by taking the ball. But what mattered more was that he looked like he belonged. He gave Boston 5 1/3 innings, allowed one run on five hits, walked two, struck out six, and threw a career-high 96 pitches. That is real work. That is not some cute rookie cameo. That is a legitimate start from a young left-hander on the road in a rubber match.

And there was real substance to it.

Early did not overpower Cincinnati. He got his outs by mixing, staying competitive in the zone, and continuing to attack even when the Reds made him work. His fastball sat at 94.4 mph, and he used it heavily, throwing it 37 times, but it was not one of those outings where hitters looked helpless against it. He got ahead of people and filled the zone well enough, landing 70 percent strikes with the fastball, but had a harder time finishing some at-bats than he did late last season. Cincinnati kept spoiling two-strike pitches, and that is a big reason his pitch count climbed as quickly as it did.

Still, the shape of the outing was encouraging.

His slider was clearly his best weapon. He threw it 16 times, got swing-and-miss on nearly one out of every five, and used it as his best put-away pitch. His changeup also played well, both as a pace disruptor and as a contact manager. He threw 20 of them and kept hitters from doing much with it. The curveball was more of a show-and-steal pitch in this outing. He mixed in a few sinkers and sweepers, too, but this was mostly a four-seam, changeup, slider game plan.

That mix worked well enough to get him through 5 1/3 with only one run charged to his line.

The command was not pristine. He caught too much of the zone at times, especially with the fastball, and his location was more competitive than pinpoint. But that almost made the outing more impressive. He did not need perfect command to keep the Red Sox in control. He pitched through traffic, kept his composure, and ended his day by striking out Elly De La Cruz after an ABS reversal went Boston’s way.

That is the profile of a young pitcher who can already function even when he is not at his absolute best.

If the Red Sox wanted proof that Early is more than just an interesting young arm, they got it Sunday.

The Red Sox Offense Is Making the Same Bad Point Over and Over

Now for the part that should bother Boston.

Connelly Early gave the Red Sox the kind of start that should be enough to win a lot of games. It was not enough Sunday because the offense once again failed in the spots that actually matter most.

The Red Sox had seven hits and six walks. They matched Cincinnati in hits. They put men on base all afternoon. They also went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

That is the game.

You can dress it up however you want. You can call it a small sample size. You can say timely hitting comes and goes over 162 games. All of that is true. It is still fair to look at this opening series and say the offense has not been good enough in the biggest moments. Saturday, they went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Sunday, they went 0-for-7. In both losses, they reached base 13 times and still lost.

That is not some random little stat. That is a warning sign.

This is why people who were skeptical of the Red Sox lineup heading into the year still feel justified. Boston can talk all it wants about run prevention, athleticism, depth, and defensive improvement. Fine. But if the offense cannot support quality starting pitching, then you are asking to lose exactly this kind of game. One swing flips it, and suddenly your starter’s good work means very little.

That is what happened when Eugenio Suárez turned an 0-2 pitch from Greg Weissert into a three-run homer in the sixth. Boston had spent the first half of the game building a narrow lead instead of a meaningful one. Then one bad relief sequence wiped it out.

When your offense lives like that, you are always one mistake away from losing.

Wilyer Abreu Was the Entire Offense Again

At some point, this stops being a nice early-season story and starts becoming a real identity question.

Is Wilyer Abreu just one of the Red Sox’s hottest hitters right now, or is he one of their most important hitters, period?

Sunday only pushed that question harder.

Abreu went 3-for-4 with a home run and a double. He drove in both Boston runs. He now has two home runs and two doubles in the series and was basically the only Red Sox hitter consistently punishing mistakes. His two-run homer in the fourth put Boston ahead 2-0. His double later in the game nearly turned into more, but the lineup around him could not finish the job.

That has been the recurring theme. Someone gives the Red Sox a window, and the next hitter or two slams it shut.

Abreu deserves a ton of credit because he looks locked in, balanced, and dangerous. He is seeing the ball well, handling different pitch types, and not missing the pitches he should drive. But Boston cannot ask one hitter to be the whole offense. That is not a serious formula. Not over a full season.

Roman Anthony had chances and could not cash them in. Trevor Story had a quiet ending to a quiet weekend. Caleb Durbin stayed hitless and empty. Jarren Duran got on base twice and still managed to hurt the team with a brutal pickoff in the eighth.

There were too many empty plate appearances again, and it wasted another standout day from Abreu.

Jarren Duran and Caleb Durbin Had the Kinds of Mistakes That Swing Close Games

The biggest frustration with this game is that the Red Sox did not get blown away. They gave it away in pieces.

Duran’s pickoff in the eighth was awful.

There is no softer way to say it. He was the tying run. Tony Santillan had already pitched the day before and was not exactly filling the zone with confidence. He walked Duran, then fell behind Willson Contreras 3-0. The situation was begging for patience and pressure. Instead, Duran let himself get picked off first base. That is a gift out in a one-run game. Good teams cannot hand those away, especially when the offense is already struggling to string together big hits.

Then there is Durbin.

He is now 0-for-12 with three strikeouts to start the season, and the strikeout Sunday in a huge late spot stood out because his whole value proposition is supposed to be different. He was acquired in part because he is meant to offer contact, small-ball value, lineup flexibility, and cleaner at-bats. If he is going to go hitless and punch out in leverage spots, then he is not bringing enough right now to justify the growing patience test.

That does not mean anyone should panic about Durbin after three games. It does mean the start has been rough, and pretending otherwise is pointless.

On a team trying to win close games with detail and execution, these little failures become huge.

Greg Weissert Turned an Encouraging Afternoon into a Loss

This game is going to be remembered for Early’s strong start and Abreu’s hot bat, but the actual turning point was Greg Weissert failing to finish the inning.

Early left with a runner on and one out in the sixth. That is not some impossible fire to put out. Weissert walked Sal Stewart on five pitches, got ahead of Eugenio Suárez 0-2, and then made the one mistake he absolutely could not make. He tried to elevate a four-seam fastball to finish the at-bat and instead left it in the exact part of the zone where Suárez could do damage.

He did.

That three-run homer changed the game, and it was the kind of bullpen mistake that feels especially costly because it followed so much good work from Early. This was not a game where the Reds gradually wore the Red Sox down. This was a game where Boston held the lead, had the better starting pitching, and still lost because one reliever could not execute with two strikes.

Again, that is the problem with building a team that lives close to the edge offensively. When you only have a 2-0 lead, one swing can erase everything.

This Was the Most Revealing Game of the Opening Series

Opening Day told the optimistic story.

Game 2 told the chaotic story.

Game 3 told a concerning story.

Not because the Red Sox got crushed. They did not. Not because Connelly Early disappointed. He absolutely did not. This game was revealing because it showed the exact shape of Boston’s problem if the offense stays ordinary.

The Red Sox have enough pitching to matter. That is real. Garrett Crochet looked like an ace in Game 1. Early looked like a legitimate weapon in Game 3. There is reason to believe this staff can keep Boston in a lot of games.

But if the lineup keeps doing this, if it keeps failing with runners in scoring position, if it keeps turning traffic into nothing, then the Red Sox are going to spend the whole year depending on near-perfect sequencing from their pitchers and bullpen arms.

That is not sustainable.

It is one thing to say the offense will be better. It probably will be. It is another thing entirely to pretend this opening weekend did not show the concern clearly. Boston scored 10 runs in the three-game series. It was enough to win one game. In the two losses, the Red Sox repeatedly got men on and could not deliver the hit that changed the inning.

That is a roster issue until proven otherwise.

Final Take on the Red Sox Loss to the Reds

The Red Sox lost 3-2 on Sunday, and the most annoying part is that Connelly Early deserved better.

He gave Boston a polished, mature, highly encouraging start. Wilyer Abreu kept raking. Jovani Moran kept the deficit where it was. And the Red Sox still dropped the game because they could not hit in leverage spots, Duran made a terrible baserunning mistake, Durbin came up empty again, and Weissert threw one pitch that completely changed the afternoon.

That is a frustrating way to lose. It is also a very instructive way to lose.

If the Red Sox are going to be good in 2026, they cannot keep wasting starts like that. They cannot keep turning on-base traffic into nothing. They cannot keep living in games where one bullpen mistake erases six innings of solid baseball.

Three games are too early to draw big conclusions about what this team is.

It is not too early to say this much.

The pitching looks good enough to matter.

The offense still has to prove it belongs in the same sentence.