Connelly Early was set to take the ball for the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins, another chance for the 24-year-old left-hander to hold onto a rotation job he was not expected to win when spring training began.
Early entered the start with the best ERA among Red Sox starting pitchers at 2.63 through three outings, and he had not allowed more than two runs in any of them. He opened the season by giving up one earned run in 5 1/3 innings against the Cincinnati Reds, then allowed two earned runs in four innings against the San Diego Padres before holding his next opponent to one earned run in 4 1/3 innings. That run has pushed him ahead of the rest of Boston’s rotation early, even as the club came in having lost two straight games to Minnesota.
The numbers are a sharp turn from where the Red Sox thought they might be in March. Johan Oviedo was viewed as the expected No. 5 starter when camp opened, but Early beat him out for the job before the season started. Since then, his results have put him in a different lane from several established starters around the game, including Sonny Gray, Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suárez and Brayan Bello, whose early ERAs sat higher than Early’s mark.
For Boston, the question now is whether Early can turn a strong opening into something more durable. He has done enough in three starts to force the team to keep giving him the ball, and Wednesday’s assignment against the Twins was the latest sign that the Red Sox are no longer treating him like a temporary fill-in.
