Red Sox drop opening series, waste Connelly Early's Babe Ruth-esque start

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on Mar 29, 2026

Published in Baseball

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CINCINNATI — It’s been 100 years since the Red Sox saw a start like the one Connelly Early turned in Sunday afternoon.

At 23 years and 360 days old, the Red Sox rookie was already the youngest pitcher to start one of the first three Red Sox games of the season since Jeff Sellers in 1987, and the youngest left-hander since Billy Rohr in the 1967 Impossible Dream season.

But it was Early’s performance that put him in conversation with a baseball legend. He pitched 5 1/3 innings of one-run ball, with five hits, two walks and six strikeouts, on a career-high 96 pitches (61 for strikes, two wild). He’s the youngest Red Sox starter to strike out at least five batters and allow no more than one run in one of the first three games of a season since Babe Ruth in 1916.

The Red Sox won Ruth’s game, though. The Red Sox fell to the Reds, 3-2, on Sunday to drop the opening series.

Early’s dazzling season debut was nearly pristine. He held the Reds scoreless until the sixth, while Wilyer Abreu’s second home run in as many days put Boston on top 2-0 in the fourth.

After a successful ABS challenge by catcher Connor Wong, Early finished his outing with a strikeout of Reds star Elly De La Cruz. But Early left behind a baserunner (Matt McClain, leadoff single), and reliever Greg Weissert gave up a 431-foot three-run homer to Eugenio Suárez, which put the Reds on the board and ahead 3-2 in the sixth.

For the first time in the series, the Red Sox struggled, not only to plate runs, but to maintain traffic on the bases. After tallying seven hits against Opening Day starter Andrew Abbott and five against Brady Singer on Saturday, they managed just three hits off Rhett Lowder in five innings.

The Boston bats erased themselves from the base paths inning after inning. Jarren Duran drew a leadoff walk in the sixth, confirmed after an unsuccessful challenge by Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, but Willson Contreras grounded into a double play. Thus, the bases were empty when Abreu whacked a double off the wall in left-center, a few feet too short of a second home run.

Duran drew another walk in the eighth, only to be picked off by reliever Tony Santillan.

The Red Sox drew six walks, struck out seven times and matched the Reds with seven hits. They were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base.

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