The Boston Red Sox lost to the Houston Astros on Wednesday, 6-4, dropping their fifth straight and starting the season with an abysmal record of 1-5. This is odd because on paper, this roster is projected to succeed. Now, there have been multiple struggles for this team, coming from all sides of the field. So what exactly is holding them back? Is it time to worry about this team, despite it being early? 

Worries About the Offense

In the first few games, the offense wasn’t exactly the main issue. Sure, there haven’t been a lot of contributors, but a hot start from Wilyer Abreu kept them in games. In their two losses to Cincinnati, they went to extras in one of them, and also lost by one in the second game. It wasn’t until the Houston series that the offense’s struggles really began. 

First, let’s start with a positive. Besides Abreu, the catchers are keeping strong in this lineup. Carlos Narvaez has less than ten at-bats this season, but is hitting .444 on the season. Then there’s Connor Wong. Admittedly, there were some doubts about him coming back and whether he would be the right choice as the backup catcher. And those questions were fair. He significantly struggled during the 2025 season. He wasn’t able to get an RBI until June, and his first extra-base hit came in late July. To start this year, he’s batting .500 with three doubles in four games. It’s safe to say he’s doing better. This platoon is better than last year, and hopefully it can last.

 

Aside from those three, however, the offense has basically been non-existent. The highest average after Abreu and the catchers is Roman Anthony at .227. And he struck out four times on Monday night. As a team, this Boston squad is sixth in all of Major League Baseball in strikeouts, with 67. Of those, 38 came in the Houston series. Granted, this was a problem for the Red Sox last year as well. Rafael Devers started the season 0 for 21 with 15 strikeouts, and the team finished with 1,419 in the 2025 season. It’s early, but it’s a bad habit that the team surely doesn’t want to slip into. 

The New Guys

Although almost every batter in this lineup has struggled, it’s particularly the new guys who have stuck out. Caleb Durbin, although good defensively, is currently 0 for 18 on the season. Willson Contreras is 3-20, although he has been walked five times and has an OBP of .346. Isiah Kiner-Falefa has gone 0-4 in limited at-bats as well. The biggest issues going into last offseason were retaining Alex Bregman and getting a power bat. The Red Sox failed to do both, and as of now, the replacements aren’t looking great yet. 

Pitching Issues

On Opening Day, Garrett Crochet pitched six innings of shutout ball, adding eight strikeouts into the mix. Since then, the Red Sox rotation and bullpen have been among the worst in baseball. With a 4.91 ERA and an OBA of .260, it has not been the best start for them. Connelly Early had the best start since Opening Day, but the bullpen (specifically Greg Weissert) collapsed and lost that game. This was followed up by a disastrous start from newcomer Ranger Suarez, as well as fellow addition Johan Oviedo. 

Aside from Early’s start, the rest of the bad pitching has come as the result of a single bad inning, it seems. Whether the first inning on Saturday or the 5th on Tuesday night when Brayan Bello took the mound, it’s just one inning that their opponents break open. And due to the offense’s struggles, they can’t bounce back from it.

 

Although the talk has mainly been about the starters here, as mentioned, the bullpen has its meltdowns, such as Weissert and Oviedo. However, in most cases thus far, the relief pitchers just make the game more out of reach. Closer Aroldis Chapman hasn’t appeared in many games as a result.

Defensive Struggles 

Now, while more guys on base most likely means more pressure on the pitcher, the defense hasn’t exactly been helping them out of the inning. The team only has four errors through six games, which would be fine if they came at points that didn’t matter. But especially in the Astros series, these errors caused a lot of damage. Whether it was the Wong-Marcelo Mayer double error on Tuesday or the error by Wong on Wednesday trying to prevent another stolen base, it was a tough series. Anthony’s arm has also been received as underwhelming by fans, not reaching home plate to throw out what would be the game-winning run in Cincinnati.

On a more positive note, despite the worries about Durbin at third base due to his height, he seems to be doing okay there. He has one error in ten chances, equaling a fielding percentage of .900. It’s a small sample size, especially so early in the season. But if this shows any signs of what he can do on the defensive side, Boston should have no worries regarding third.  

What’s the Main Issue?

The Red Sox are struggling in every aspect that one can think of at this moment. But the question is: what’s the biggest concern? Certainly, pitching is an issue. They’ve been outscored 31-17 in the first six games. But Cincinnati was a postseason team last year, and Houston has a very good top half of the lineup, including a player who looks like an early MVP candidate in Yordan Alvarez. For a rotation that is hailed as one of the best in baseball, they definitely should do better. But they’re not facing bad teams.

The offense, on the other hand, definitely shows areas of concern. Not only are they fourth in strikeouts, as previously mentioned, but they’re also struggling with runners in scoring position. After Wednesday’s game, the Red Sox are now 5-for-33 with runners in scoring position. They’ve left 35 runners on base as well, which makes the situation even worse. 

Is It Time To Panic?

Given all this information, the panic for this team is justified. For how this team was hyped up and looking at them on paper, they should be doing much better than they are. But remember, the 2025 Sox started 28-32 through May, and they made the postseason. That being said, the issues appear to be more severe than last year as of now. It may be recency bias, but the panic for now is probably at a six out of ten. It’s early, and they haven’t had their homestand yet, which starts Friday with the San Diego Padres. Perhaps being home at Fenway can fix some of these. If they continue on this path, however, there might need to be some conversations.

 

Main Photo Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images