The Boston Red Sox’s three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds ended in disappointment on Sunday with a 3-2 defeat.

Boston kicked off the 2026 season on a high note on Thursday with an Opening Day win over the Reds, but struck out in Games 2 and 3. Now, the Red Sox will begin a three-game series on the road against the Houston Astros on Monday night. It wasn’t the Red Sox’s day on Sunday, but there was one very bright spot: young starting pitcher Connelly Early.

Early was one of the biggest stories of Spring Training. He entered camp with the expectation that him and Payton Tolle would both very likely be starting the 2026 season down in Triple-A. While this is the case, Early shined in camp and earned a job in the starting rotation straight out of camp. He made his first start of the season on Sunday and impressed. Early pitched 5 1/3 innings and struck out six batters while allowing just one earned run. Early left the game in the sixth inning with a runner on and without a run on the board, but Eugenio Suárez smashed a homer off Greg Weissert to give Cincinnati its three runs.

The young Boston Red Sox starter shined on Sunday

Early did everything the club could’ve asked for in his first start of the season and actually made a big of team history in the process. JP Long, former Red Sox Director of Baseball Communications and Media Relations, shared on X that Early is the youngest hurler since Babe Ruth for Boston to allow one or fewer runs and strike out five or more batters in one of the team’s first three games of the season.

“Connelly Early is the youngest Red Sox starter since Babe Ruth in 1916 to allow 1 or 0 runs and strike out 5+ batters in one of the team’s first 3 games of a season,” Long wrote on X.

Certainly a bit obscure, but it goes to show how impressive Early’s rise to the big leagues has been. He’s just 23 years old and looks like someone who could make an impact in this rotation for a long time to come. There are questions about the rotation in general with Johan Oviedo currently in the bullpen. But Early certainly pitched well enough to stick around for another go through the rotation, at the very least.