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Had the Red Sox started the 2003 season like they’ve started the current one, local sportscasting legend Bob Lobel would have likely rolled out his giant Panic Button prop onto the set of the six o’clock newscast and promptly smashed it to within an inch of its life.
As it is, enough current day fans are ready to metaphorically do the same. The Red Sox may have completed less than five percent of the 2026 schedule, but to an antsy fan base, that’s not too soon to call for Alex Cora’s job and a complete overhaul of the active roster.
Is such panic warranted? No. Is there cause for concern? Absolutely.
The Red Sox spent last winter putting together a roster that emphasized pitching and defense and a good portion of the spring hoping to correct the team’s poor success rate with runners in scoring position.
So what happens in the first two series of the year? The Red Sox get one quality start in six games. They’ve committed an error per game. They’re striking out an average of 11 times per contest. They’re ranked second-to-last in batting average with runners in scoring position.
In short, very little has gone right. And odd as it may seem, that’s actually encouraging.
The Red Sox trudge home from a 1-5 start to the season precisely because they’ve done almost nothing well. Their pitchers haven’t kept them in most games. Their defensive play has been sloppy. And they rank in the lower third in the league in OPS.
In other words, the problems are identifiable, and in theory at least, fixable. It’s highly unlikely that Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez are as bad as they looked in their first outings. It’s not logical to assume that Trevor Story is this unsteady at short. And given that the lineup a year ago was a Top 5 offense and is at least as good this season, don’t expect that they’re going to continue a tick over two runs per game.
That’s not to say that the first half-dozen games haven’t raised some proverbial red flags. Johan Oviedo’s sharp drop-off in velocity is highly alarming, especially since Oviedo can’t provide a reason for the decline. What’s more, the team’s obvious lack of home run power is on full display early. If the Sox had more hitters capable of hitting the ball out of the ballpark, they’d be better positioned to make up some of the big deficits they’ve created for themselves.
An out-of-the-gate stumble, like the one the Red Sox executed in Cincinnati and Houston, however, tends to magnify every aspect of an underperforming team. Had the Red Sox gone 3-3 instead of 1-5, it’s likely that the failure to recognize that Cam Smith had struck out on three pitches would have been a slightly comical misstep and not evidence that the manager was somehow asleep on the job.
The same goes for Carlos Narvaez’s benching Wednesday. In a more positive environment, his mystery removal would have been a minor note. Instead, some it took as it a symbol of clubhouse dysfunction.
On the topic of the manager, it’s absurd — though not entirely unexpected — that some would use the occasion of an early-season, five-game losing streak to call for Cora’s firing.
Think of an alternate scenario: if the Sox had ripped off five straight wins, would it make sense to advocate for a contract extension.
All of that said, the Red Sox have done themselves no favors with their stumbling. The division is tough enough without the Sox ceding ground to the likes of the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays. Meanwhile, the schedule does them few favors in the early going: of the next 10 series, six are against teams that qualified for the postseason a year ago, with another against the Astros, who just swept them and outscored them by a collective total of 23-7.
It may take some time for the Red Sox to extricate themselves from this mess, but the solutions aren’t complex. They need to catch the ball better, allow fewer homers and put the ball in play more when presented with scoring opportunities. None of those qualify as impossible tasks.
No doubt, the poor play has already led to some fast second-guessing about the team’s path last winter, with reminders that the Sox erred in not pursuing Pete Alonso, or failing to retain Alex Bregman, or some other slip-up when it comes to roster construction.
It’s worth giving this group more time. A similar start last April soon turned into a five-game winning streak, and eventually, a spot in the postseason.
If they’re still this bad in a month’s time, however, the real recriminations will begin.
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