PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — When Connelly Early’s first season as a giant leaguer got here to an finish final October, the message he acquired from the Crimson Sox was easy: Get greater, get stronger.
5 months later Early reported to camp with 15 kilos of added muscle, and Monday he put these good points to good use.
Early was sharp in his first begin of spring coaching, throwing two scoreless innings in Boston’s eventual 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The 23-year-old left-hander threw 27 pitches, 18 for strikes, and allowed one stroll and one strikeout with no hits or runs.
“I felt good right this moment,” Early stated following his outing. “Physique felt good, did job getting right here slightly bit early and staying in my routine and I felt snug on the market.”
“He was good,” stated supervisor Alex Cora. “There’s just a few issues as a younger pitcher we would like him to work on, slowing down the working recreation. I believed he did job with the baserunner, mixing up his look and all that. Stuff was actually good. It was begin for him, now we simply go.”
Whereas two innings is simply too small a pattern measurement to attract any agency conclusions, Early’s 94.8 mph fastball was a notable tick up from the 94 he averaged in 2025. Cora stated they hope Early’s elevated physicality will enable him to take care of his velocity deeper into video games and the season as an entire, and Early stated he’s assured there’s nonetheless extra room for enchancment as camp goes alongside.
“I feel it was a reasonably great spot right this moment, hopefully that continues to go up because the climate goes up however clearly when you get again to Fenway within the chilly generally it’s slightly bit down due to that,” Early stated. “However yeah, I felt good, I simply wish to keep wholesome and go about my routine the appropriate manner.”
Early was one among Boston’s largest minor league success tales final season, rising from relative obscurity to earn a late-season call-up whereas serving to pitch the membership into the playoffs for the primary time since 2021. As soon as there Early obtained the beginning in Boston’s do-or-die Sport 3 towards the New York Yankees within the AL Wild Card Sequence, and whereas the Crimson Sox misplaced the sport, Early pitched properly and was in the end undone by poor infield protection and dangerous luck.
However these alternatives have been solely potential as a result of quite a few different starters forward of him on the depth chart both obtained harm or underperformed. Now with veterans Johan Oviedo, Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval and fellow upstart Payton Tolle all competing for the final rotation spot, Early may discover himself again in Triple-A to begin the season even when he does every little thing proper this spring.
Even nonetheless, Early understands higher than anybody that issues can change instantly, so after ending final season on the mound at Yankee Stadium, he stated he’ll be prepared every time his quantity is named.
“It motivated me a ton, clearly having them belief me with the ball on the market in that begin was actually large,” Early stated. “Clearly it didn’t actually go the way in which I might’ve wished, however generally baseball occurs and it makes you hungry for the following yr attempting to get again into that very same place.”
Rays stroll it off
Runs have been exhausting to return by for each groups in Monday’s recreation, which remained a scoreless tie into the ninth inning. The Crimson Sox lastly broke the ice on a two-out RBI triple by Mickey Gasper, however the Rays rallied within the backside of the ninth with a single, a double and a walk-off two-run single by Jonny DeLuca.
Carlos Narvaez (2 for 3) was the one Crimson Sox participant with multiple hit, and Boston tallied eight hits as a workforce.
Kelly stands out
Monday was a stellar day for Boston’s relievers, together with Zack Kelly, who struck out two with one hit in his scoreless inning of labor.
Kyle Keller, Wyatt Olds, Noah Track and Jeremy Wu-Yelland every pitched scoreless innings as properly, and T.J. Sikkema was charged with one run over 1.2 innings.
Locals take area
Two gamers with ties to the Boston space appeared within the recreation for the Rays. Former St. John’s of Shrewsbury standout Ian Seymour got here on in reduction of starter Drew Rasmussen and threw two scoreless innings with two hits and two strikeouts, and ex-Central Catholic nice Dominic Keegan subbed in at catcher within the sixth inning and went 0 for 1.
Upcoming arms
Ranger Suarez will get his first begin in a Crimson Sox uniform on Tuesday towards the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he’s anticipated to be adopted by Ryan Watson, Alec Gamboa, Seth Martinez, Vinny Nittoli and Jacob Webb.
