BOSTON -- The Brayan Bello saga, one of the most confounding storylines for the Red Sox this season, only got murkier on Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park, much to the chagrin of a crowd hoping its team could win a home series for the first time since April 8.
It was not to be, as the Orioles handed the Sox an 8-2 defeat that closed out a brief three-game homestand.
While Boston’s home struggles (10-21, worst in the Majors) is a story unto itself, the enigma that has become Bello was the unfortunate headliner on getaway day.
To recap, this has been the pattern for the last month or so.
Option A, most frequently used; The Sox put an opener in front of Belllo. Said opener gives up a run or more to put the team in a hole. Bello comes in and performs well (0.71 ERA in four relief appearances).
Option B: Bello, coming off a brilliant bulk-inning performance, gets another chance to start. It goes horribly off track, sending the coaching staff back to the drawing board.
Coming off seven scoreless innings of relief last Friday in Cleveland -- when Bello took the ball with his team already down four runs -- the time seemed right to go back to Option B.
By the time Bello walked off the mound to end a 40-pitch top of the first inning against Baltimore, Boston was down, 6-0. In his eight starts this season, Bello’s ERA in the opening frame is 16.88.
Bello nearly escaped the inning at 2-0 on an RBI single by Leody Taveras, when Samuel Basallo slid into third, and it looked like Caleb Durbin might have slapped the tag on him when his leg came off the bag. But when interim manager Chad Tracy asked for a challenge, he was denied for not getting in prior to the 15-second deadline.
That was a minor annoyance. The issue with Bello is more far-reaching.
With lefty ace Garrett Crochet (left shoulder inflammation, low grade lat strain) likely to be sidelined for the rest of this month, there is urgency for the Red Sox to solve their Bello issue.
“It just feels like for us to be successful, we need Bello to start,” Tracy said prior to the game. “We’ve beat a dead horse with this. Like, we start him, it doesn't go well. The opener doesn't do well. ‘Why did you open?’ At the end of the day, we need this guy to pitch.”
Bello was at least able to settle down for the rest of his outing, giving the Red Sox a season-high of 108 pitches, while allowing two more runs for the remainder of his five-inning outing.