Red Sox blank Braves with seven scoreless innings by Connelly Early

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on May 27, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Too often this season, the big, game-changing hit has eluded the Boston Red Sox.

They didn’t need one to take a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning Wednesday night, the frame that ultimately sealed an 8-0 series-evening victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves.

Boston’s half of the fourth was all about the power of one.

Masataka Yoshida’s first-pitch leadoff single.

Marcelo Mayer’s first-pitch grounder, which looked like a guaranteed unassisted out at first base until it took a weird hop, and Yoshida scored the game’s first run while Matt Olson gave chase and was charged with a fielding error.

Four straight singles by Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela (on the first pitch) and Wilyer Abreu.

It marked the first time the Red Sox scored as many as six runs in a single inning at home this season (previously September 14, 2025).

And all with one out.

The Braves went to their bullpen in between Rafaela’s and Abreu’s fourth-inning singles. Starter Bryce Elder exited after 3 1/3 innings, charged with six runs, five of them earned, on nine hits, one walk and with just one strikeout. He threw 59 pitches, 41 for strikes.

Elder was also charged with a two-base throwing error that turned Nick Sogard’s single into a three-base move in the bottom of the second.

The Red Sox tallied at least 15 hits for the third time this season. They scored a minimum of eight runs for the sixth time, their first such game since May 5 in Detroit. They went 6 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Red Sox starter Connelly Early wove in and out of traffic in the early frames, but received a standing ovation as he walked off the mound after completing his seventh and final scoreless inning of the night.

The Braves began the game with back-to-back men reaching base, Ronald Acuna Jr. by leadoff walk and Mauricio Dubón via a fielding error by Mayer, who relocated from second base to shortstop at the start of the week in the wake of Trevor Story’s hernia surgery. But the rookie southpaw was undeterred, and retired the next two batters, Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies, on a first-pitch pop-out and inning-ending double play.

Early issued a walk in each of the first three frames, and didn’t pitch a clean one until the fifth, but it mattered not. For the second time this month, he completed seven scoreless. He scattered four hits, three walks and recorded seven strikeouts across his start, which required 97 pitches (65 for strikes).

From 2018 to 2025, the Red Sox didn’t have a single pitcher younger than 25 who could pitch seven scoreless innings. Between Early and fellow rookie southpaw Payton Tolle, they had three such performances this month.

Rookie reliever Ryan Watson completed the shutout with two innings of one-hit ball.

It marks the first Red Sox win of a six-game homestand that ends Thursday. They are 9-18 at Fenway this season, and 23-31 overall.

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