Top-heavy Red Sox rotation to this point will need other starters to get in line behind Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray

BOSTON — Through the first fortnight of the 2026 season, the Red Sox have learned that their fortunes rise and fall with the starting pitcher on the mound. When Garrett Crochet or Sonny Gray take the ball, the club looks like a contender; when anyone else does, the results have been sobering.

The divide was on full display during the just-completed homestand at Fenway Park. Crochet out-dueled Milwaukee ace Jacob Misiorowski on Tuesday, and Gray followed with 6⅓ shutout innings in Wednesday’s 5-0 series-clinching victory. Those two starts pushed Boston to its first series win of the year and improved the Sox to 4-0 when either Crochet or Gray records a quality start. In those four outings, the duo has compiled a 1.45 ERA while averaging just over six innings per turn.

The rest of the rotation has yet to answer the bell. In the other eight games, Red Sox starters have managed only 4⅓ innings per outing with a 6.75 ERA. Unsurprisingly, the club is 0-8 in those contests.

Manager Alex Cora, never one to mince words, distilled the situation after Gray’s gem.

For this team to make it to October, we have to pitch, Cora said. And we will.

That conviction shaped the roster construction last winter. After the front office abandoned its pursuit of free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, the Sox doubled down on pitching, earmarking a franchise-record commitment to the rotation. The early returns have been mixed at best.

Connelly Early has flashed upside, posting a 2.89 ERA through two starts, though he has totaled only 9⅓ innings. Ranger Suarez, signed to a five-year, $130 million deal for his elite command, owns an 8.64 ERA in 8⅓ innings while working his way into form after a World Baseball Classic workload that limited his spring innings. Brayan Bello, armed with a sharper cutter and improved curve, has seen his velocity dip and carries a 9.00 ERA in eight innings.

Catcher Carlos Narváez, charged with guiding the staff, remains confident the rotation will converge on its potential.

Great names, a lot of talent, Narváez said. We know what we are capable of, and those guys in the starting rotation, the first five, are amazing.

The blueprint is straightforward: replicate the standard Crochet and Gray have set. Crochet continues to refine his full repertoire atop a fastball that touches triple digits, while Gray, coming off consecutive 200-strikeout seasons in St. Louis, brings mid-rotation stability and surgical precision.

If the others follow suit, the Red Sox believe they can overcome an offense that has produced only one extra-base hit over the final two games of the Milwaukee series. Great pitching, as Wednesday’s victory illustrated, can transform a modest lineup into an opportunistic one.

We’re starting to trend in the right direction, Gray said after lowering his season ERA to 1.93.

Boston will need that momentum to carry into the next turn through the rotation. The club emerged from its 2-8 start with a 3-3 homestand, and Cora insists the worst is behind them.

If we continue to pitch, we’re going to be OK, he said.

For the Red Sox, the math is simple: the season hinges on whether the rest of the rotation can align itself behind the co-aces at the top.