It's hard to find many positive things to say about the way the Boston Red Sox's 2026 season has started: the offense looks anemic and asleep at the plate, the pitching hasn't lived up to the hype and the defense is not improved.
But here, just for the home opener, we'll forgo the doomer attitude. Five bad (terrible, bordering on unwatchable) games can't ruin a season... right?
We'll get all the "it's early" talk out of the way quickly here. It's not even a week into April and there are still five entire months of baseball to be played. Two new faces, Caleb Durbin and Willson Contreras, are playing the infield corners, still getting to know what it means to represent Boston. Brayan Bello and Ranger Suárez looked rough in their 2026 debuts, but they're still working their way up to full-season strength after missing out on spring training innings while they played in the World Baseball Classic.
The 2026 Red Sox have twice as many errors (six) as the 2025 squad had through six games. But four of their errors have been committed by two players, so the defense isn't really as rough as it seems: Trevor Story and Connor Wong have each made two miscues. Carlos Narváez will get more reps than Wong behind the dish, and he'll give the Red Sox better defense overall. The one error that was attributed to defensive savant Marcelo Mayer should've gone to Brayan Bello, so Mayer's status as an excellent defender in the infield remains intact.
The first week of the Red Sox's season has been brutal to watch, but they're getting their struggles out early
Despite its offensive troubles, when Boston has made contact, it's hit the ball hard. The Red Sox rank fourth in the league with a 44.1 hard hit percentage, but they've been unlucky with timing and placement. Boston is batting .208 as a team, but its xBA is .224 — it's still not much, but it's more. Balls will eventually start falling the Red Sox's way, and hopefully that begins at their home ballpark on April 3.
Roman Anthony seems to be breaking out of his early-season funk. Anthony is almost sure to be the leadoff hitter in Boston throughout the season because of his usually uncanny ability to get on base. He struck out 11 times in the Red Sox's first six games, but hit a homer off the bench against the Houston Astros after Alex Cora gave him a rest. Admittedly, it's a lot of pressure for a 21-year-old, but when Anthony is on and hitting — which the Red Sox have seen for quite some time already — the rest of the lineup should follow.
Lastly, the Red Sox's many early-season issues are ones they've had before as recently as last year. The 2025 Sox went through spells of ugly defense and frequent strikeouts, but they also went on multiple winning streaks, one as long as 10 games, leading into the All-Star break. They struck out a lot, yes, but their aggressiveness at the plate also helped them win 89 games and make the playoffs.
When the 2025 Red Sox were winning, they were incredibly fun to watch and they looked like they were having fun themselves — the phrase "the power of friendship" comes to mind. The Red Sox haven't looked like they were having fun since Opening Day, and that needs to change for them to break out of their cold streak.
The Red Sox will play better, but because they've played so few games, everything feels awful right now. Boston is a few adjustments away from becoming something akin to (or hopefully better) than the team it was last season. The Red Sox have a golden chance to break out during their home-opening series against the 2-4 San Diego Padres, who also undoubtedly have a fire lit under them after early struggles.