That connected to the second issue: a bullpen that, other than Garrett Whitlock, does not have a truly trustworthy high-leverage righthanded option.
Cora turned to Greg Weissert in the sixth but he retired just one of four batters, allowing a two-out tying double from Tyler Soderstrom followed by a go-ahead single by Brett Harris.
As Cora walked to the mound to try his third pitcher of the inning, Weissert started toward the dugout quickly, handing Cora the ball as they met at the bottom of the mound. Many in the crowd of 35,886 booed.
Along the way, the Athletics took advantage of that third Sox deficiency: scoring. They finished 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base. Trevor Story collected three hits; the rest of the Red Sox totaled five. Their only run was unearned.
Romy Gonzalez grounded into two double plays, in the second inning — to waste a bases-loaded, no-out chance — and in the ninth to end the game.
Early struck out seven, walked none, and gave up five hits. Because Weissert allowed the inherited runner to score, Early’s ERA changed from a perfect 0.00 to 0.87.
Early is the first pitcher in major league history to total at least 10⅓ innings in his first two appearances and allow one or zero runs, and one or zero walks, since at least 1893 (when the mound was set to its current distance from home plate), according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Red Sox selected Early for this start over another pair of lefthanders, rookie Payton Tolle and Kyle Harrison, after he pitched the best of the three last week against the same team.
“We just decided. He pitched well against them, he has good stuff,” Cora said before the game. “He prepares, he was doing his homework. I don’t know if we have to make adjustments. We still have to throw strikes and expand when we have to, and hopefully we can accomplish that.”
Early indeed made adjustments in how he approached the same set of batters for a second outing in a row.
In his debut last week, he leaned on his four-seam fastball and curveball for about half of his pitches, with his changeup, slider, and sinker on the next tier.
In this second time around, Early inverted that, relying more heavily on his sinker and changeup, then mixing in the curveball, four-seam, and slider.
The Red Sox scratched across one unearned run in four innings against lefthander Jeffrey Springs, who otherwise worked around five hits and three walks. They went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base against him.
In the second, the Sox loaded the bases with no outs but did not score. Ceddanne Rafaela struck out — swinging at a changeup over the heart of the plate — and Romy Gonzalez grounded into a double play.
The run came in the third, when Rob Refsnyder drew a walk with two outs. Carlos Narváez drove a double to left-center field, where center fielder Lawrence Butler bobbled it for an error. That allowed Refsnyder to come all the way around from first.
Trevor Story swiped second base in the first and again in the fifth, giving him 30 steals in 30 attempts on the year. He became just the fourth player in the expansion era (since 1961) to begin a season stealing at least that many bases without getting caught. The Phillies’ Trea Turner (30 in 2023), Rays’ Carl Crawford (30 in 2009), and the Cardinals’ Vince Coleman (44 in 1989) also did it.