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Manager Alex Cora has not been able to guide the Red Sox to a winning record.

Heading into the 2025 season, the Boston Red Sox had high expectations. Most major experts, including an ESPN panel of 28 baseball analysts, picked the Red Sox to get as far as the World Series — or at minimum, to make the American League playoffs.

On Memorial Day, generally considered the key turning point of the MLB season — when teams have played roughly one-third of their schedules — Boston lost 3-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers, wasting yet another outstanding outing by their ace, 25-year-old lefty Garrett Crochet.

The loss, their third in a row, dropped the Red Sox to 27-29 and into fourth place in the AL East, a full seven games off the pace set by the New York Yankees — as well as 2 1/2 games behind the Houston Astros for the third and final AL Wild Card slot.

Boston obtained Crochet from the Chicago White Sox in December to anchor their starting rotation, giving up four of their top 14 prospects — including fourth-ranked prospect catcher Kyle Teel — to bring him to the Red Sox.

Red Sox Fail to Take Advantage of Crochet

Crochet has delivered what the team expected of him — but the Red Sox have failed to take advantage. In the 2020 first-round draft pick’s last six starts he has thrown 38 innings, allowing just nine runs, an ERA of 2.13, striking out 45 against only nine walks.

And yet, in those six games, the Red Sox have a record of 2-4. According to the “Pythagorean,” or “expected” winning percentage formula, a team that gets Crochet’s ERA over those six games should win about 76 percent, or approximately 4.5 out of six.

In his 12 starts on the season, Crochet has posted a 2.04 ERA, eighth in MLB. But his won-loss record on the Red Sox is 4-4.

The Memorial Day loss was the 20th one-run game of the season for the Red Sox, who have played 56 games total. That’s the second-most one-run decisions in MLB. Only the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates, with 22 each, have played more games decided by one run.

The Red Sox record in one-run contests is 6-14.

Frustration, understandably, is starting to boil over in the Red Sox clubhouse. After Monday’s loss, outfielder Rob Refsnyder gave voice to the Red Sox’ mood.

“It’s not for lack of effort or work ethic, game planning. It’s just, we’re not doing it,” Refsnyder said. “We suck right now. We gotta just be better.”

No Clear Solutions Offered by Cora

Manager Alex Cora echoed Refsnyfder’s sentiments, though he offered no solutions to the team’s problems.

“Right now, we’re not putting a complete game together,” he said after the Memorial Day defeat. “Offensively, obviously, we didn’t do much. We put pressure late in the game but, as of now, it’s not happening to us.”

“It’s frustrating. I’m tired of losing. Tired of losing close games,” Refsnyder added. “We just need to figure it out and win some games. Bottom line.”

The Red Sox have also suffered some significant injuries, most notably third baseman — and Boston’s premier offseason free agent signing — Alex Bregman, who is expected to miss significant time with a quad muscle strain.

Bregman was batting .299 with a .938 OPS when he was injured on Friday. His wRC+ — a measure of a player’s run creation value in which MLB average is always 100 — of 159 was second on the team to the 160 posted by designated hitter Rafael Devers.

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin

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