Red Sox Power Outage: Why Boston's Slugging Has Vanished
The Yankees made their first visit to Fenway Park and, in a combined time of 8 hours, 37 minutes, dispatched the Red Sox to kick off the 2026 version of the rivalry, which is guaranteed to be featured on national television at some point this season.
The sweep was not dominating since none of the games were blowouts. The combined margin was 12-3, which, given some of the rough at-bats by the Red Sox, might as well have felt like 30-3 – the same score as the Wes Littleton save game for Texas versus Baltimore in 2007.
The sweep also left the Yankees with 16 wins in their first 25 games, which is about as good a start as possible following the "run it back" drinking game that became an ad nauseam talking point in the winter.
The sweep also left the Red Sox even further at the bottom of the AL with 16 losses in 25 games and questions about their offense that lingered into Friday afternoon before their pitching allowed six homers and 20 hits in a 10-3 loss at Baltimore After hitting (.141) 13-for-92 in the three games, the Red Sox are a bottom-five team in batting average (.226), last in the AL in OPS (.641), 25th in runs (95) and perhaps even more alarming are the power numbers.
An alarming power dip
The Red Sox were not great home run hitters last season, when they reached the playoffs for the first time since 2021. They may wind up even worse this season in their first full season after trading Rafael Devers.
Boston's 15 homers are the fewest in the AL. Last season, the Red Sox were 16th with 186 homers and hit 97 of those after trading Devers to the San Francisco Giants on June 15.
The Red Sox went 52-37 after dealing Devers, but their season ended when Cam Schlittler dominated with 12 strikeouts in eight innings in Game 3 of the wild-card series at Yankee Stadium.
The final night of last season also turned out to be Alex Bregman's final appearance with Boston, and by mid-January, he was signing with the Cubs.
It is certainly possible the Red Sox pick up the power starting this weekend in Baltimore, but on a team known for sluggers like Jim Rice, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez in its history, the lack of power is really, really, noticeable, especially when it comes against the Yankees.
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Since hitting five homers at Yankee Stadium in an 11-7 win on June 8, the Red Sox have not hit more than two homers in the past 13 games against the Yankees. In that span, they also scored more than three runs four times.
Who can the Red Sox turn to for power?
Last season, Trevor Story led the Red Sox with 25 homers in his age-32 season while missing only five games. It was his most homers since slugging 35 for the Rockies in 2019, and his 96 RBIs were his most since driving in 108 during the 2018 season – the last season Colorado appeared in a playoff game.
It was the first time since the Red Sox home run leader finished with 25 or fewer since 2017, but that team employed a burgeoning Mookie Betts, who finished with 24 homers and 102 RBIs and was among a core of young players who led the Red Sox to their fourth World Series title since 2004.
Other seasons where the Red Sox's leading home run hitter finished with 25 or fewer were 2012, and nobody associated with them wants to remember the only season under manager Bobby Valentine for any reason.
Story is among those off to slow starts with two homers and a .186 average.
Another is Roman Anthony, who has one homer in 22 games after hitting eight in 71 games in a promising rookie campaign cut short by an oblique injury.
Maybe it's the cold weather, but maybe it's the fact that the Red Sox may not have anyone capable of approaching the power levels of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Cody Bellinger to name a few Yankee sluggers.
It is also starting to get worrisome to key figures in the front office, notably team president Sam Kennedy.
"Yeah, we definitely can. There's lots of ways to score runs," Kennedy said on the NESN pregame show before the Red Sox got blanked by the Yankees on Tuesday. "That said, we've got to start hitting the ball out of the ballpark.
"I was actually talking to folks from the other side today (meaning the Yankees) and they just said that this cold weather - you're going to start seeing a lot more home runs. They had a lot of home runs last week - it was 80 degrees in New York City. Listen, let's get a little home cooking, a little warm weather and hopefully get going. But it has been frustrating."
Will the Red Sox turn this around?
The Red Sox are already eight games behind the Yankees with a minus-29 run differential. That figure is the second-worst mark in the AL, behind the Royals, who may be in a similar boat as Boston.
The early returns are alarming, and the offense does not necessarily possess a pedigree to show it is capable of reversing a drought that has seen them hit six homers in the past 18 games.
The Red Sox may get a better idea in the upcoming weeks with 13 games against the other division teams not named the Yankees along with a trip to Detroit and a visit from Houston, which enters this weekend with the worst team ERA so far.
If the power does not improve, not only will keeping pace with the Yankees be difficult, but so will staying in striking distance in the wild-card race.
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This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 6:55 AM.