Game 59: Orioles at Red Sox — Connelly Early tries to twirl a third striaght gem at Fenway

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MAY 27: Connelly Early #71 of the Boston Red Sox pitches during the seventh inning of a game against the Atlanta Braves on May 27, 2026 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) | Getty Images The awful road Orioles (9-17)

What is the story about?

The awful road Orioles (9-17) take on the even more awful Fenway Red Sox (9-19) in a battle for the bottom of the American League East.

But you know who hasn’t been awful at Fenway of late? Connelly Early. He’s thrown back to back seven inning shutouts in the comforts of home against the Rays and Braves, who are two of the best teams in all of baseball.

Early’s probably going to have to be great again too, because offensively, the Red Sox have been so bad at Fenway Park this season, they’ve only won

one game all year in which the opponent has scored more than two runs. In the month of May, it was even worse. Here’s all their wins at home in May, and as you can see, all of them involved the opponent scoring one run or less:

3-1 vs. Houston on May 1st
2-0 vs. Tampa on May 8th
3-1 vs. Philadelphia on May 13th
8-0 vs Atlanta on May 27th

Boy do they suck!

The good news is, as you can probably deduce, two of those were the Connelly Early games referenced above, so between that and the Orioles being on the road, maybe they can break through tonight.

Lineup wise, the biggest items of note are Ceddanne Rafaela and Willson Contreras back in there after being out of the lineup on Sunday to double up on rest days with the Monday off day, and Mickey Gasper continuing to court favor with Chad Tracy as he once again gets the start behind the dish.

Today’s Lineups

ORIOLES	RED SOX
Taylor Ward – LF	Jarren Duran – LF
Gunnar Henderson – SS	Ceddanne Rafaela – CF
Adley Rutschman – C	Wilyer Abreu – RF
Pete Alonso – 1B	Willson Contreras – 1B
Samuel Basallo – DH	Masataka Yoshida – DH
Coby Mayo – 3B	Mickey Gasper – C
Tyler O’Neill – RF	Isiah Kiner-Falefa – 2B
Leody Taveras – CF	Marcelo Mayer – SS
Blaze Alexander – 2B	Caleb Durbin – 3B

Shane Baz – RHP	Connelly Early – LHP