Finally, the Boston Red Sox have a turn in the right direction.<\/p>\n
Back-to-back victories against the Milwaukee Brewers have the Red Sox feeling good as they turn their attention to another National League Central opponent, with the opener of a three-game series tonight against the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
Strong pitching performances set the stage for Boston\u2019s two latest victories, as left-hander Garrett Crochet and right-hander Sonny Gray each pitched 6\u2153 innings en route to their respective 3-2 and 5-0 decisions. Now, manager Alex Cora looks to southpaw Connelly Early (0-0, 2.89 ERA) to continue the trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will pitch. We\u2019re going to be better,\u201d Cora said. \u201cAnd for this team to make it to October, we have to pitch. And we will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the Red Sox lost his first two starts of 2026 by 3-2 scores, Early has picked up where he left off as a rookie last September. The 24-year-old has allowed just three runs and struck out 10 through 9\u2153 innings, including four innings of two-run ball in his start Saturday against the San Diego Padres.<\/p>\n
Across four starts late last season, Early was 1-2 with a 2.33 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 19\u2153 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cStuff-wise, he\u2019s really good,\u201d Cora said earlier this season. \u201cHe slows down the moments, and he\u2019s getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Gray did after Crochet, Early will look to help the Red Sox continue building momentum from their first series win. There were more positive signs, too, as Wilyer Abreu continued his hot start (.383 average) with a 2-for-4 effort Wednesday, and Trevor Story erased an 0-for-16 funk with a four-game hit streak and three straight multi-RBI performances.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The slow start is) already in the past. We\u2019ve got to move forward,\u201d Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez said. \u201cWe won the series. That\u2019s all that matters now. We\u2019ve got six on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cardinals return home with momentum themselves, having followed up a 7-6, 10-inning triumph Tuesday with a convincing 6-1 effort Wednesday against the Washington Nationals.<\/p>\n
It has been a stretch to remember for 23-year-old outfielder Jordan Walker, who homered in all three games against Washington and four of the past five, giving him 12 RBI and a 1.049 OPS for the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, I always feel like I can do it,\u201d Walker said. \u201cBut just working with the guys all day \u2026 (my confidence) is just going through the roof right now and I\u2019ve got to get it to stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of Walker continuing his recent exploits, Alec Burleson went 3-for-4 with three RBI and starter Michael McGreevy (1-1) pitched six solid innings to lead to Wednesday\u2019s win. It was just the second of seven St. Louis victories that did not require a comeback effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very complete team. That\u2019s how it feels,\u201d McGreevy said. \u201cEverything you want out of a baseball team. You\u2019ve got great defenders behind you. You\u2019ve got great offense. I never felt like we were out of any game on this road trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe style of play, how we\u2019re winning these ballgames, has been consistent,\u201d he said. \u201cMore proud of that than anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the struggles of Dustin May (0-2, 15.95) have been a sore spot for St. Louis thus far, as the veteran righty has been touched up for 13 runs on 17 hits in just 7\u2153 innings. He lasted just 3\u2153 innings and allowed seven runs last Saturday in an 11-6 setback to the host Detroit Tigers.<\/p>\n
May made six appearances (five starts) for the Red Sox late last season. His only career appearance against them was a five-inning losing effort July 27, just four days before the Los Angeles Dodgers traded him to Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally, the Boston Red Sox have a turn in the right direction. Back-to-back victories against the Milwaukee Brewers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2403],"tags":[5,160,4,673,67,4311,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-672306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-louis-cardinals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cardinals","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-st-louis","12":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","13":"tag-stlouis","14":"tag-stlouiscardinals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116379361202373598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}