Has it really only been a week since Opening Day? Here are seven new questions to think about as the Red Sox strand some more base-runners.

1. How have last week’s Red Sox Opening Day questions aged?

I don’t often revisit the previous heptad, but given how things are going for the Red Sox thus far, I figured this was a good time to deviate from the routine.

Last week, I led off by asking how Rafael Devers would handle the transition from third base to designated hitter. Answer so far: not well! Historically unwell, in fact. By Saturday night, Devers set a new MLB record with 10 strikeouts in his first three games of the season. He entered Tuesday leading the majors with 15 strikeouts, a total it took him over a dozen games to reach last year.

Next, I debated whether winning on Opening Day matters. It certainly did for the Red Sox this year, as they’d be 0-5 without that victory. (And Tyler O’Neill did, in fact, homer for the sixth consecutive Opening Day in a row.)

As for Question No. 6, jury’s still out on whether the Red Sox will sell out their home opener. As of Tuesday, my phone was still receiving incessant notifications from a ticket app, which claims to have plenty of options left for Boston’s first baseball weekend of the year.

2. How bad is it, really?

At 1-4, the Red Sox off to their worst start since 2020.

It’s not great, and it’s certainly not ideal. It’s also somewhat surprising for a team many picked to take the AL East this season. Which is, of course, still very possible! After all, the Red Sox are only five contests into this 162-game slate.

Yet as I noted in last week’s ‘7 Questions,’ these ‘just one game’ losses pile up very quickly, and they’re difficult to overcome down the stretch.

Is it encouraging or concerning that the Red Sox are losing very winnable games? Opponents have only scored five more runs so far (21-16), so it’s not as if they’ve been getting blown out. However, Boston is 0-2 in one-run games. They’re hitting .219 with a .628 OPS when they have men on base, and faring even worse with runners in scoring position; in 64 such plate appearances, they’re hitting a minuscule .164 with a .554 OPS, nine hits, nine walks, and 23 strikeouts. Only three of those hits were for extra bases: a double, triple, and home run. With a runner on third and two outs, they’re 1 for 9 (.111) with two runs, two walks, and five strikeouts. They’re hitless in 10 plate appearances with the bases loaded.

Is it Devers at DH that’s throwing the vast majority of the lineup out of whack? Perhaps the cold start for Alex Bregman and Trevor Story?

Whatever’s missing, the Red Sox need to find it, and fast.

3. And how frustrating is it?

It’s been a long time since there were such high preseason expectations for the Red Sox, and even longer since they had an offseason like the one that just ended, which they not only spent and traded to acquire elite talent, but had so much of it blooming in their top-ranked farm system.

For the last several years, Red Sox Nation may have been cautiously optimistic about a new season, but like the payroll, expectations were low.

Now, they have something to lose, so it’s more difficult when they do.

4. Did the Red Sox jump the gun by extending Garrett Crochet?

Garrett Crochet’s six-year, $170 million extension isn’t just the second-largest starting pitching contract in Red Sox history, it’s also the largest in major league history for any player with only four years of service time.

It’s the kind of urgency the Atlanta Braves have with their young stars, and exactly what Red Sox needed to have with Mookie Betts early in his club-control years. Former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom acknowledged several years ago that the front office needed to stop waiting to lock in young talent.

However, Crochet has even less service time as a starter. He was in the Chicago White Sox bullpen until the start of last season – and on a stringent pitch-limit that meant he went no deeper than four innings in any of his starts after July 1 – and he made his first Red Sox start last week on Opening Day.

But starting pitching is expensive. Elite southpaw starters are even harder to find, hence the Red Sox being willing to trade their ’23 and ’24 first-round picks to get Crochet during the MLB Winter Meetings back in December. Crochet is also a unique case because of his youth; he’s one of the youngest players on the team, his 26th birthday still over two months away (June 21).

So, like any big contract, the Red Sox are taking a risk. But isn’t that what fans have been begging them to do for the last several years?

Crochet may be the first extension of the year, but the Red Sox are almost certainly going to keep going. They’re in talks with Kristian Campbell’s camp.

5. What’s going on with the Red Sox lineup?

Devers is far from the only guy in the lineup playing like a MonStar stole his skills.

Devers, Jarren Duran, and Alex Bregman, the top three in the order, are tied for the team-lead in plate appearances (23). None of them have scored a run. Triston Casas and Trevor Story are 1 for 17 with seven strikeouts and 2 for 15 with six, respectively. Six of the 13 men who’ve come to the plate thus far are hitting .133 or lower; five are hitting under .068.

Their ‘Space Jam’-esque cold spell is baffling, yet unsurprising to anyone who watched the Boston bats go silent down the stretch last season.

6. Should the Red Sox follow the Yankees’ footsteps and try hitting with torpedo bats?

Why not? It can’t hurt, can it?

7. Have the Red Sox ever made the playoffs when started the season 1-4?

No.