Red Sox rookie: ‘I didn’t do a good enough job’

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Red Sox rookie Connelly Early summed up his start against the Rays on Monday with two simple sentences.

“I didn’t do a good enough job,” he said. “Spraying the ball too much.”


Early took the loss in Boston’s 3-1 defeat at Tropicana Field.

“Mostly just in and out of the strike zone,” interim manager Chad Tracy said.

Early threw just 56% of his 96 pitches for strikes. In all, he allowed two runs, five hits and four walks while striking out six in 4 ⅔ innings.


“I think I was just trying to execute the outer rail, and I didn’t do a good enough job with that,” Early said.

The 24-year-old left-hander gave up a home run on the game’s first pitch to Yandy Díaz, then began to limit damage despite an abundance of base runners. He generated 14 swings and misses: five with his four-seam fastball, five with his sinker, two with his changeup and two with his sweeper.

He said he needs to get the walks under control. He has allowed eight walks over his past three starts.

“Just attacking the zone, flooding the zone with my stuff,” Early said. “Trying to get the ball away. And I think the misses with the sinker and the four-(seamer) were a little bit too much. If I establish that a little bit better, the spin plays a little bit better.”

Tracy said Early was “out of sorts a bit,” but credited him for limiting the damage.

“Too many walks in there, taken out before I get through the fifth,” Early said. “So leave a lot of the game up for the bullpen to clean up — and that’s a tough job to expect them to go four-plus innings."


Early dropped to 5-4 with a 3.30 ERA in 13 starts. The Red Sox offense provided little support, managing just four hits.

“He had good stuff,” Marcelo Mayer said about Early. “Obviously, tonight first at-bat, but he settled in and did what he knows how to do. We gotta win those games when the other team scores three, four runs.”

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