List of Boston Red Sox Opening Day starting pitchers

Fenway Park, Boston's home ballpark since 1912

The Boston Red Sox are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Boston, Massachusetts. They have played in the American League since it was founded in 1901, and the American League East since divisions were introduced in 1969. The first game of each baseball season for a team is known as Opening Day, for which being named the starting pitcher is an honor. That honor is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season, although there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day.

Records

Including the team's first 2025 game, the team has had 125 Opening Days. In those Opening Day games:

Results by decade

Nathan Eovaldi was the Red Sox' starting pitcher for Opening Day in 2020, 2021, and 2022.

‡ 1900s spans nine seasons, as 1901 was the team's first season.
† Number of pitchers making their first Opening Day start for the Red Sox franchise, along with their surnames. Pitchers' full names appear in the below List.

Pitchers

Cy Young was Boston's Opening Day starting pitcher six times between 1902 and 1908.

Key

List

George Winter pitched on Opening Day for the Boston Americans in 1903.
Smoky Joe Wood was the Opening Day starter three times, 1911–1913.
Babe Ruth started on Opening Day in 1916, 1917, and 1918.
In 1923, 1924, and 1926, Howard Ehmke started on Opening Day for the Red Sox.
Mel Parnell started four Opening Day games for the Red Sox, all in the 1950s.
Dennis Eckersley made five consecutive Opening Day starts for Boston, 1979–1983.
Roger Clemens was Boston's Opening Day starting pitcher eight times between 1988 and 1996.
From 1998 through 2004, Pedro Martínez was Boston's Opening Day starting pitcher.
Jon Lester was Opening Day starting pitcher for Boston from 2011 through 2014.

References

Uses material from the Wikipedia article List of Boston Red Sox Opening Day starting pitchers, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.