As a spectator to the poor start to the 2026 season, former Red Sox All-Star closer Jonathan Papelbon is having flashbacks to a dark time in franchise history.
His thoughts watching the Sox stagger to a 2-8 start?
“I see a lot of remnants of ’11, man,” Papelbon said prior to the Sox’ gruesome 8-6 loss to the Brewers.
Papelbon, of course, was referring to the 2011 campaign — his last as a member of the Red Sox — when a team on pace for 100 wins through August collapsed, going 7-20 in September to get bounced from the playoff race on the season’s last day.
But that meltdown proved crushing precisely because it had a complementary bookend. The 2011 Sox started the year with six straight losses and were 2-10 through 12 games — just enough, in tandem with the woeful September, to render an 81-42 midyear run irrelevant.
Read more from Alex Speier at BostonGlobe.com/Sports. | 
