BOSTON-- It has been a series to forget for the Boston Red Sox, as they have dropped the first two games of a three-game set against the New York Yankees. They'll look to salvage the series finale on Thursday night, but for the second straight game, they'll do so without young star Roman Anthony. 

Anthony was out of the lineup in Wednesday night's loss to New York, with what Red Sox manager Alex Cora described as back tightness, adding that the team wasn't concerned and he should be ready to go in Thursday's finale. While making his weekly appearance on WEEI's The Greg Hill Show, Cora announced that Anthony will need another day. 

"We're going to stay away from Roman today again, last night he had treatment. He's feeling better, but not great," Cora said, "We're going to go with Jarren [Duran] leading off today" he continued. 

Thanks to a World Baseball Classic performance that saw him hit a game-winning home run to send Team USA to the finals, expectations were sky-high for the 21-year-old Anthony, who was ranked as the top prospect in baseball entering the 2025 season. After the trade that sent Rafael Devers to San Francisco and Alex Bregman departing for the North Side of Chicago in free agency, with little done to replace their production, all eyes turned to Anthony to carry the load for the Red Sox at the plate. 

Anthony has played in 22 of Boston's first 25 games, appearing in both left field and designated hitter, where he is hitting just .225 with an OPS of .686. That's a far cry from the .292/.396/.463 that he was able to produce in 71 games in 2025. 

Anthony's struggles have extended beyond the plate, as he has made several throws that were wildly off target in the first several weeks of the season, leading to Cora using him as the designated hitter while he worked through the mechanics issue in the field. 

Part of the problem at the plate for Anthony has been his selectiveness. He's running just a 51.5% swing rate on pitches in the strike zone, a four percent decrease from his 2025 numbers. He is also hitting the ball on the ground far too often; his ability to hit the ball in the air was one of the few knocks on his game during his time in the minors. Anthony enters play Thursday with the 44th highest ground-ball rate in baseball, at 47.3%. 

There is plenty of reason to be optimistic that Anthony will snap out of his funk at the plate, though. His 16.5% walk rate has him in the 91st percentile in baseball, and his chase percentage has stayed relatively consistent with his 2025 numbers in the 80th+ percentile of hitters. He has also continued to hit the ball hard, with an average exit velocity of 92.7 m.p.h. Similarly, his expected batting average of .263 shows that he's getting at least a little bit unlucky with the balls he's putting in play. 

If the Red Sox offense is going to have any hope of coming out of this rough stretch to start the season they are going to need Anthony to become the player that both the team, and fans know he can be. 

The Red Sox will have to salvage the series finale against the Yankees without him, though, as he continues to nurse that sore back, and they will have their work cut out for them with budding ace Cam Schlittler on the mound for New York. Payton Tolle will get the start for Boston in his 2026 season debut. First pitch from Fenway Park at 6:10 p.m. ET. 

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