{"id":122146,"date":"2026-05-18T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=122146"},"modified":"2026-05-18T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:47:12","slug":"the-issues-with-this-red-sox-offense-as-the-team-continues-to-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/18\/the-issues-with-this-red-sox-offense-as-the-team-continues-to-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Issues with this Red Sox Offense as the Team Continues to Struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite thinking that the <\/span>early season struggles<\/span><\/a> was just shaking the rust off from this offseason, the Red Sox haven\u2019t seemed to get any better as a team. Sure, the pitching has massively improved, with highlights from <\/span>homegrown talents<\/span><\/a> in<\/span> Payton Tolle<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Connelly Early<\/span><\/a>. In fact, in the month of May, the Red Sox pitching staff has had an ERA of 2.73, holding batters to a .217 OBA, and struck out 124 batters. <\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s extremely impressive, seeing that as of May 18th, they\u2019ve only had one scheduled day off this month (May 9th against Tampa Bay was postponed). They\u2019re also doing this without one of the best pitchers in baseball in Garrett Crochet, who <\/span>went down at the end of April<\/span><\/a> with left shoulder problems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So the pitching surely hasn\u2019t been the problem. Not consistently at least. And the defense isn\u2019t either. The Red Sox have the highest DRS in the league at +40. The highlights there are right fielder <\/span>Wilyer Abreu<\/span><\/a> (11) and third baseman <\/span>Caleb Durbin<\/span><\/a> (seven). Both of them rank in the top 10 of DRS<\/a> around the league. So that puts the main focus on the offense.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Offense\u2019s Struggles Continue Post-Cora\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Even after <\/span>firing<\/span><\/a> former manager Alex Cora<\/a> as well as most of his staff, the Red Sox continue to struggle. As mentioned. The pitching and defense has been phenomenal. However, in the month of May, they\u2019re 7-8. In 15 games, they\u2019ve scored 44 runs. In the month of April (26 games), they had 110. Now it\u2019s a bigger sample size in April, but there\u2019s serious doubts they\u2019ll catch up to that pace. In fact, Pat Brown of WEEI put out a stat saying if they scored at a league average rate, they\u2019d be one of the best in baseball.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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If the Sox were a league average offense (4.5 runs per game) their record would be….<\/p>\n

32-14<\/p>\n

\u2014 Pat Brown (@PatBrown954) May 17, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s legit. Of the 46 games played, opponents have scored 5+ in only 14 of those games. In addition, Eight of their 27 losses have come with the following criteria:<\/span><\/p>\n