ARLINGTON, Texas — In a 162-game marathon, early-season results tend to get magnified. It’s too early to read much into a four-game series, and yet, having dropped three straight after winning the opener, including a 3-2 loss on Sunday, the Red Sox left Texas with a sour taste in their mouths.
There were positives, particularly from Wilyer Abreu and Kristian Campbell, as well as a good showing from the bullpen. The team played solid defense and ran the bases well. But the offense as a whole struggled so much that it overshadowed many of the promising aspects of the first series.
On Sunday, the Red Sox were 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on base. In the four-game series, they were 6-for-41 in potential run-scoring situations. Abreu and Campbell hit well, but the other Red Sox hitters struck out 38 times in 110 at-bats.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but we just didn’t pick guys up when we were on the bases, and it starts with me,” third baseman Alex Bregman said.
Bregman went 4-for-17 in the series. On Sunday, he came up with two men on — including the speedy Jarren Duran on second — and the team trailing by one run, but he struck out to end it.
“Obviously, I had a lot of chances this series. Guys did a good job getting on base in front of me, and I got to be better and come through in those spots, and I will be,” he said.
Manager Alex Cora acknowledged the early struggles, but was encouraged by the number of base runners.
“That trend is going to change,” he said of squandering scoring chances. “We will hit, we know that. It’s one of those, we’ve just got to slow it down.
“We’ve just got to make sure we don’t chase. If you stay in the zone and make contact, we’re going to be in a good place.”
Triston Casas collected just one hit in the series, but Rafael Devers’ struggles received the most attention, particularly because he became the first player in major-league history to strike out 10 times in his first three games of the season. He’s currently 0-for-16 with 12 strikeouts.
Before Sunday’s game, Cora mentioned he and the hitting coaches spoke with Devers about tightening his stance to create a better base.
“If you’re not grounded, you’re not going to be on time,” Cora said.
Cora also noted that while it’s not ideal timing for Devers to be struggling, the player knows his swing best.
“One of the things for me as a manager, I learned this from Tito (Francona), is you don’t know everything, right?” Cora said. “I was a .230 hitter. So for me to break down the swing and tell Raffy, you’re doing this, you’re not doing this, no. But obviously, the relationship and watching him since 2017, you pick up a few things. Other players have seen it right, and you don’t want to hammer him with everything. He knows. He feels it.”
Cora said Devers will be in the lineup on Monday in Baltimore, where he’s hit well in his career, even with a left-hander on the mound. Casas will get the day off.
While others may be struggling, Abreu has been a force. He reached base four more times on Sunday with a double and three walks, including his first career intentional walk. In the series, he went 7-for-10 with two homers, two doubles, five walks, five runs scored and six RBIs. He drove in or scored nine of Boston’s 11 runs.
Fitts battles in season debut
Richard Fitts earned a rotation spot after his impressive spring training performance coincided with injuries to starters Lucas Giolito and Brayan Bello. In his season debut on Sunday, two solo homers in the sixth marred an otherwise solid start.
Fitts allowed three straight runners to reach to start the second, loading the bases, but he got a key strikeout before Duran picked him up with a terrific sliding catch that resulted in a sacrifice fly. Had the ball gotten down, it would have allowed at least two runs to score. Fitts then got a big out, getting Marcus Semien to ground out. From that point on, Fitts fell into a rhythm, retiring 12 straight batters as the Red Sox took a 2-1 lead on an errant throw in the sixth inning.
The right-hander was rolling so much that Cora opted to keep him in the game to start the sixth with just 56 pitches thrown. But by the third time through the order, the Rangers had gotten a read on Fitts and tagged him for two solo homers to retake the lead for good. He finished with three runs allowed on six hits, striking out four. He didn’t issue a walk and threw 71 pitches, 53 strikes, with eight swings-and-misses.
“I think overall he gave us a chance to win,” Cora said. “He’s been doing that for a while, he’s throwing excellent. He earned his spot and today was a good one.”
Fitts has proven he can compete at the big-league level and provide the Red Sox with valuable starting depth.
Bello and Giolito are still a few weeks away from returning, but each is scheduled to start for Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. They are both scheduled for three innings as part of their build-up. Cora said they’ll each have two more starts of four and five innings apiece. Kutter Crawford, meanwhile, is in Fort Myers, Fla., and is still just throwing bullpens.
Bullpen shines
As starters are still building up early in the season, it’s rare for them to go deep in games, particularly with bullpen matchups taking precedence over starters facing a lineup the third time through.
Fitts’ six innings marked the Red Sox’s longest start in the series, with Garrett Crochet going five, Tanner Houck going 5 2/3 innings and Walker Buehler managing just 4 2/3 innings. As one of the bright spots in an otherwise frustrating series, seven relievers combined to throw 12 scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and one walk while striking out seven.
Greg Weissert, Justin Slaten and Justin Wilson each appeared in two games, while Garrett Whitlock looked strong in a two-inning outing on Thursday. Cora said he plans to use Whitlock almost exclusively in two-inning outings like he did in 2021 and will avoid using him for just one frame or stretching him out to three innings. Zack Kelly also had a nice outing on Saturday. After allowing a leadoff double, he retired six straight over two innings of work.
In their lone win on Thursday, Cora used Aroldis Chapman in the eighth inning to face a key part of the Rangers lineup before turning to Slaten for the save. It’s a setup he figures to deploy often with the game on the line.
The group could be getting stronger soon. Liam Hendriks, who had a cortisone shot on Thursday, returned to throwing on Sunday. He said he’s feeling a lot better with the shot, having loosened up some of the tension in what he called a compressed nerve. If it was up to him, Hendriks said he’d like to return at the end of the 15-day IL window, but Cora said they’ll make sure they don’t skip steps with Hendriks, given how long a road it’s been for him to return to the mound.
Campbell flashes his speed
Campbell, who appears to be nearing a contract extension, put on a show all weekend. Part of why Campbell made the roster is for his defensive versatility, which he’s already displayed with three solid games at second base and an equally impressive game in left field, where he nearly made a spectacular play on his very first attempt.
One underrated element of his game is his speed, which has shown up in the field and on the base paths. On that diving play in left field, Campbell hesitated for a fraction of a second, but watching him close in on the ball before diving showed just how quick he is.
Campbell’s diving attempt in LF had a 15% catch probability last night, would have been a 5-star grab. Needed to go 74′ in 4.1 seconds, had it in the webbing until the ground jarred it out.
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats.bsky.social) March 30, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Similarly, in the second inning on Sunday, Campbell hit a deep fly to right off Jacob deGrom. He wasn’t running full-speed out of the box, perhaps thinking it would go foul, but as he approached first, he turned it up a notch and slid safely into second, albeit on a close play. In the sixth, Campbell reached on a force out and then scored from first on a double to left from Abreu.
For a team that values good base running — the Red Sox are 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts — Campbell’s speed adds another element.
Casas adds value with the glove
Casas has been a slow starter in each of his first three seasons. In his first four games last season, he went 1-for-15 with six strikeouts before going 18-for-63 (.286) with six homers over the next 18 games that preceded his rib cage injury. So far this year, he’s 1-for-16 with seven strikeouts.
Cora, however, has been impressed with Casas’ improved defense at first base.
“Since halfway through spring he changed the way he does his pre-pitch (routine),” Cora said. “He’s a lot quicker now. He’s done an outstanding job since last year, picking up throws. And he can catch every throw. So I think … he’s a game changer. If you think about it, when Kiké (Hernandez) played short here in ‘23, he made all those throwing errors. We didn’t pick too many of them. And now Triston is becoming one of the best at first base.”
Top prospects Anthony, Mayer off to fast starts in Worcester
The Triple-A Worcester season began this weekend, and Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony have picked up where they left off in spring training.
Anthony hit two mammoth home runs on Sunday, going 412 feet and 383 feet, respectively.
Roman Anthony’s first home run of the day today – 412 feet, 109mph off the bat
— Katie Morrison-O’Day (@katiemo61.bsky.social) March 30, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Mayer went 2-for-5 with a two-run single in the third after a 10-pitch at-bat. In Worcester last week, he told reporters he felt like he’d done enough to deserve a spot on the Red Sox roster. Cora said he liked Mayer’s mindset.
“It’s good that he feels that way,” Cora said. “Just got to be patient. That’s the way it works. We got some good players here. Obviously, balance means a lot to us offensively. Like I said before, (Mayer and Anthony) are an injury away, probably, from the big leagues, but I actually think it’s the other way around, they’re going to push us to make decisions.”
Cora noted Mayer will be seeing time at short, second and third in Worcester.
“Very toolsy, he’s very mature,” Cora said of Mayer. “He’s a good defender. He cares about defense, he really does, which I love. It’s easy for him to play defense. Offensively, there’s a few things that we truly believe he needs to get better. And throughout the camp, he started facing big leaguers, and he did a good job with it but chasing soft stuff in the zone, staying back and hitting it hard. He’s in a good spot. He played really well the whole camp and I’m not upset at all that he said that. That’s the way it should be.”
Cora spoke highly of Anthony all spring, too, but similarly noted a few things they’ll have him work on.
“I think at the end, Roman struck out a little more than what he wanted. But at the same time, his swing mechanics kind of changed, especially in Mexico,” he said. “They were trying to put on a show. So, they’ll be okay. They’re going to be part of this at one point.”
(Top photo of Kristian Campbell: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
