Kyle Harrison's second dominant Brewers start comes with only 1 Red Sox silver lining

Nearly every team has played at least 11 games to this point in the 2026 season, and everyone has won at least four of them. Everyone besides the lowly Athletics and the Boston Red Sox, that is.

It's been an absolutely brutal start to the year for Boston -- one of the on-paper favorites in the Junior Circuit. Injuries continue to hold important contributors like Triston Casas, Tanner Houck, and Johan Oviedo out of action, while the healthy Red Sox simply flail around until the other team mercifully closes out the game.

The Milwaukee Brewers got a good taste of that in the first game of their series against Boston, coming back from an early 3-0 deficit to ultimately win an 8-6 contest. Outside of some controversy involving Willson Contreras (what else is new?), it never really felt like the Red Sox were going to find a way to win the game once the Crew recovered from a slow start.

A lot of that lack of fight can be traced back to a wildly underperforming pitching staff; Garrett Crochet, who earned the win for the Red Sox last night, and Connelly Early are the only starters on the team with ERAs below 4.50 two turns through the rotation.

Kyle Harrison would sure look good in Alex Cora's starting five right about now.

Kyle Harrison dominating for Brewers, but at least Red Sox won't have to face him this year

Harrison was an upside-swing by the Brewers' front office this offseason, and so far, that bet is paying off handsomely. Through two starts, the 24-year-old southpaw owns a 2.61 ERA and 2.96 xFIP. He's also accrued 14 strikeouts, tying CC Sabathia for the most in franchise history by a left-handed pitcher in their first two starts.

It also certainly doesn't help that the players the Red Sox got in the trade have been terrible thus far in 2026. Caleb Durbin is one of the worst qualified hitters in the sport, "boasting" a -11 wRC+ and .323 OPS. Andruw Monasterio hasn't gotten a ton of playing time, but he's been literally just as bad, posting a -7 wRC+ and .375 OPS. Oh, and Anthony Seigler has been on the injured list since spring training while dealing with knee patellar tendinopathy.

Luckily, the scheduling gods have offered Boston a bit of mercy -- Harrison pitched in the series finale against the Royals, meaning he won't get a chance to dominate his old team in Fenway Park this time around. His next scheduled start is slated for the weekend, when the Brewers will welcome the Washington Nationals to American Family Field.

As far as consolation prizes go, that's a pretty weak one. But when you start a season 3-8, you'll take any silver lining you can get.