Connelly Early, Red Sox stumble in frustrating fashion vs. Orioles in 20th loss of season at Fenway

It is a riddle that has puzzled and mesmerized the human brain for centuries: What happens when an Immovable Object and Irresistible Force collide? Tuesday night, Fenway Park offered a dreary examination of the paradox by two sub-.500 disappointments.

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The Red Sox returned from an impressive road series win in Cleveland, saddled with a worst-in-baseball home record of 9-19. Their guests: The Baltimore Orioles, who — in defiance of the remarkable migratory capabilities of their namesake — carried a 9-17 road record into Boston.

For the Red Sox and the 35,004 patrons in attendance at Fenway, the result proved frustratingly familiar. The Sox offense proved punchless in a 4-2 loss to the Orioles. At 9-20, the Sox are off to their worst start at Fenway since 1932, a deficiency that has dragged a team with the fourth-best road record in the AL (16-14) to a 25-34 overall mark and sole occupancy of the AL East basement.

“This is just the normal play-at-Fenway thing,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa winced after the loss. “It’s the same story over and over again. Sick of it. And I think everybody in here is sick of it. We’ve got to find a way to be better.”

Listlessness characterized most of the contest.Connelly Early came out flat, and nearly got flattened in the first. With his fastball at 92-93 miles per hour to open the game against the Orioles, Early walked the leadoff man and permitted a double to Gunnar Henderson to put runners on second and third before recording an out.

But Early handled the traffic with the aplomb of a born jaywalker. He elicited a pop-up to shallow center from Adley Rutschman, struck out Pete Alonso on a 95-m.p.h. heater, and got an inning-ending comebacker from Samuel Basallo.

That artful escape, however, did not prove sustainable. After the Sox entrusted Early with a 1-0 lead by scoring in the bottom of the first on a Jarren Duran triple and Wilyer Abreu sac fly against Orioles starter Shane Baz, the lefthander couldn’t maintain the advantage.

Coby Mayo, leading off the second, lofted a full-count curveball from Early, his flyball bouncing on the shelf just above the Green Monster for a game-tying solo homer. One inning later, Early made his biggest mistake of the night – a hanging, two-strike changeup with a man on base to Pete Alonso. The resulting two-run rocket scattered patrons in the Monster Seats and gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead they’d never fumble.

Early’s susceptibility to slug has proven puzzlingly persistent. Tuesday marked the fourth time in his last seven starts that Early allowed multiple homers in a game, with opponents striking against his full array of pitch types and regardless of handedness.

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“Execution was here and there today. I think . . . it was just a 50-50 night,” said Early (5-3, 3.26), who allowed four runs over 5⅓ innings while striking out six and walking one. “I’ve given up a lot of home runs, so still trying to figure that one out.”

Though Early’s start wasn’t disastrous, the three-run deficit he left to his lineup seemed considerable given both the Sox’ horrendous home offense throughout 2026 (an MLB-worst 3.2 runs per game) and the way Baz (3-5, 4.29) befuddled them.

The Sox did small-ball their way to a run in the fifth on a Mickey Gasper single that eventually yielded a sac fly from Marcelo Mayer, but otherwise were unbalanced by a knuckle-curve heavy arsenal from Baz.

“He made [some] great pitches, but we left a lot of pitches to hit that we didn’t take advantage of,” said Abreu.

The Baltimore bullpen cruised through the final two innings, with Rico Garcia recording a pair of strikeouts in a perfect ninth. Thus concluded the 15^th instance this year in which the Sox have been held to two runs or fewer at Fenway – an astonishing frequency of futility.

Consider: The Sox have more home games with two runs or fewer this year (15) than they contests with at least three runs (14). They’ve had 26 different seasons as residents of Fenway Park in which they had fewer games in which they’ve been held to two runs or fewer.

How to explain the home/road disparity?

“I just feel like on the road, we’re a very close-knit team. We’ve come home and there’s just a lot of people. A lot of people. It’s different. It’s just a different vibe at home,” said Kiner-Falefa. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make it small like how it is on the road. … We were becoming a really close team. And we’ve got to find a way to bring that back home.”

Until they do so, the Sox will have to keep contemplating dismal forms of home history.

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