BOSTON -- Has the switch to a bulk-innings role the last two times out changed the course of Brayan Bello’s season, or has the righty simply gotten his groove back?
It might take a bit to know that answer for sure, but one thing was very clear on Tuesday night at Fenway Park: Bello gave the Red Sox a chance to win on a night their offense was dominated by Phillies ace Zack Wheeler.
Boston was a two-out hit away in each of the final three innings from turning a 2-1 defeat into a memorable comeback win.
Bello was the reason Boston stayed in it until the final out, and in fact, had the potential go-ahead run on base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
“I think I was very focused and had conviction on how to throw every single pitch, and I was also able to attack the zone so I think that was the key today,” said Bello.
The righty fired 6 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and a run while walking one and striking out five.
In Bello’s first six starts of the season, he went 1-4 with a 9.12 ERA with 15 walks and 17 strikeouts in 25 2/3 innings.
In the switch to bulk reliever his last two times out, Bello has a 1.29 ERA over 13 1/3 innings, while walking two and striking out 12.
Bello believes the difference has been in his work between outings, not the fact he has entered his last two outings in the second inning instead of the first.
“I feel more comfortable right now,” said Bello. “LIke I said after my last outing in Detroit, that is when my season started and that’s what my mentality is and that’s what I’m working toward.”
Having Bello get back on track while ace Garrett Crochet is still on the 15-day injured list is crucial for the Sox. Add Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray and young guns Connelly Early and Payton Tolle to a rotation that has a functioning Bello, Boston should get good starts most nights, even while Crochet remains out.
Of course, the team’s turnaround depends on the offense at last getting on a roll, something it has been unable to do.
On Tuesday, it was hard to gauge if it was Boston’s early-season funk at the plate, or the fact that Wheeler is one of the best in the game.
Wheeler set the tone early with amazing efficiency, throwing a mere 16 pitches through the first three innings.
Through six innings, he was at 59 pitches with a two-hit shutout in progress.
In the seventh, the Sox started to grind out some at-bats and nearly tied the game with one swing on a drive to deep right by Wilyer Abreu. Per Statcast, it was a home run in 29 of MLB’s 30 parks. In Boston, on a night the temperature was in the 50s, the ball landed in the glove of Adolis García right in front of the visitor’s bullpen.
“Yeah, I thought Wily got him there,” added Boston shortstop Trevor Story.
The thinking seemed to be unanimous in the home dugout that Fenway was on the verge of an eruption and that Abreu’s drive was going to land in the bullpen.
“I did [think it was a HR],” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “I think he might have got it off the end a touch or something but when it came off the bat, I did, I thought it was gone.”
Ceddanne Rafaela blooped a base hit into right later in the frame to make it a one-run game. But Boston (17-24) couldn’t draw any closer despite a great effort from Bello to keep them right in it.
Another rally (two on and one out) against Phillies closer Jhoan Duran fell short in the bottom of the ninth.
“That’s where you need the two-out hit,” said Tracy. “But by that time, [Wheeler] kind of pitched 'em to José Alvarado and Duran. So it's gonna be a tough task.”
The one task that seemingly has been accomplished is getting Bello to pitch like Bello again.
Maybe the bulk innings thing has made a difference.
“Yeah, maybe,” said catcher Carlos Narváez. “Sometimes you gotta flip something. Flip that mentality, and coming out of the bullpen he probably thinks, ‘OK I gotta be convicted right now. It's not like, okay, I got five innings, 90 pitches’. Something in his mind has changed. We’ll take that. We need him.”