The first 2026 regular-season edition of “7 Questions” was originally intended to be of the feel-good, Fenway Faithful variety in honor of Friday’s home opener.
Then the Red Sox began the season 1-5, their worst record through six games since 2019, and this heptad became a hodgepodge.
1. Are Sox really this bad?
The short answer is probably not. The lineup has too many solid-to-great hitters to be as lackluster as they look thus far. (I still believe they should’ve added another power bat during the offseason, and will need one if they want a fighting chance in the postseason.)
But at the start of spring training, manager Alex Cora told us, “I feel like we have a more complete team than last year.”
Last year’s Red Sox followed a 1-4 start, in which they were outscored 21-16, with a five-game winning streak.
So far, the 2026 Red Sox are worse. Not simply because they’ve lost five in a row after a 3-0 Opening Day win, but because Sox starters have been a driving force in opponents outscoring them 32-14 during the losing streak. Three-fifths of the rotation allowed at least four runs in their season debuts, and Garrett Crochet did the same in his second start of the year.
As of 7 p.m. Thursday, the Red Sox pitching staff’s 4.91 ERA ranked fourth-worst in the majors. Only the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays, Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Angels have given up more runs, and the Red Sox are tied for second-most homers allowed. Not ideal for a club whose front office decided to rebrand them as a pitching-and-defense powerhouse.
2. Why chase pitching/defense powerhouse?
The Red Sox have struggled to develop and build pitching depth throughout their franchise history, and they’ve spent the last several years being a bottom-two team in defense. It’s understandable they want to shed such reputations.
Yet while a season and championship can’t be won on bats alone, I still believe it’s the most important of the game’s three facets; even if the Red Sox had the best arms and gloves in the world holding opponents scoreless every single inning, they would still need at least one man who could drive in the necessary run to win 1-0.
It’s why I pull out this Pedro Martinez quote from the 2004 ALCS at least once a year: “I can’t do anything if we don’t score runs. I can only pitch, do whatever possible to keep my team in the game. From there on, it’s up to them.”
3. Is Abreu new big bat?
Wilyer Abreu has already hit three home runs, matching the combined total by the rest of his teammates.
He’s the first Red Sox player to begin a season with at least three homers and 10 hits in the team’s first six games since Carl Yastrzemski in 1974.
4. Are the Sox planning on retiring No. 49?
Calls for the Red Sox retire No. 49 began long before beloved knuckleballer and philanthropist Tim Wakefield tragically passed away from brain cancer on the final day of the 2023 Red Sox season.
No Red Sox player has worn the number since Wakefield retired in 2011. In the spring of 2024, a team executive told the Herald there had been conversations about enshrining No. 49, but that it wouldn’t happen right away.
Two years later the number remains in limbo; off-limits, but not officially so.
What’s the hold-up?
Why didn’t the Red Sox add Wakefield’s number to the exclusive club at the 2024 home opener, when most of the 2004 champions were on hand to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their historic triumph, to which Wakefield was so central? Several ‘04 teammates wondered the same thing, in part because, as Red Sox chairman Tom Werner had pointed out months before the game, by some bittersweet twist of fate, the home opener had been scheduled for April 9.
4/9. The ’24 Sox wore ’49’ patches on their jerseys that entire season. One of Fenway’s light towers bore a supersized version, but neither were permanent.
Wakefield’s wins and innings pitched rank third in franchise history, behind Roger Clemens and Cy Young. Only Clemens struck out more hitters. You don’t see many pitchers lasting 17 years in the majors these days, much less 17 years with one team, as Wakefield did. No Red Sox pitcher has started more games (430) or pitched more innings (3,006) than Wake, and it’s safe to assume that in this era of pitching, none ever will.
Throughout the final decade of the 86-year Curse of the Bambino, Wakefield was the constant as the Red Sox built, scratched and clawed their way to the Promised Land. His first season in Boston was 1995, before Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Varitek, Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and the rest of the self-proclaimed “Idiots” who finally exorcised the demons on that magical night in October.
The 2004 Red Sox barely make it through Game 4 of the ALCS, much less Game 7 if Wakefield doesn’t sacrifice himself on the altar in Game 3, a 19-8 reenactment of the Boston Massacre, with the Yankees cosplaying as redcoats.
The Red Sox consider number retirements on a case by case basis, but even when they had set criteria – a player must be with the club at least 10 years, finish their career with the team, or be in the Baseball Hall of Fame – they made exceptions.
The late Johnny Pesky was never inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Carlton Fisk didn’t retire with the Red Sox, who infamously quote-unquote accidentally mailed his contract a day late, rendering him a free agent. Nor did Martinez, who became deific during his 1998-2004 Red Sox tenure, but pitched for the Mets and Phillies after leaving Boston.
David Ortiz’s number was retired in June 2017, less than a year after he played his final game, and five years before his Hall of Fame induction.
Wade Boggs left the Red Sox for the New York Yankees, of all teams. If his No. 26 can hang on the right-field facade and stand as tall as the average adult with the other numerical monuments on David Ortiz Drive, No. 49 certainly can.
Wakefield typified what it means to be a Red Sox better than nearly any other player who ever wore the uniform. He deserves better than some hokey-pokey middle ground. He deserved to be here to see his number immortalized. His children, Brianna and Trevor, who lost both of their parents to cancer within the span of six months, deserve to see their father receive the ultimate honor from the team to which he gave everything.
5. Where’s David Ortiz’s statue?
Yes, I know Ortiz has a bridge and a street by the ballpark. But Ted Williams has a whole tunnel, and he still got a statue outside Fenway.
6. What would a Ortiz statue be?
Two Ortiz poses fit the bill. His home run celebration: jogging from third, eyes and index fingers raised skyward in tribute to his mother, who died in a car accident in January 2002.
No harm in building two statues.
7. Is it only April?
Inevitably whenever I point out that something less than ideal is going on with the Red Sox early in a season, someone will reply via social media or email that I need to relax, because it’s only March, April, May, or even June.
Sports: famously calm and relaxing pastimes.
So here’s my annual auto-reply: There’s no such thing as early, because every game counts equally. And it’s never as early as you think.