BOSTON -- The Red Sox opened the penultimate homestand of the season on Monday afternoon without an opener. This, even though it was Brayan Bello’s day to pitch.
After a second half of the season mostly filled with excellence in bulk relief, Bello went back to his roots, starting his first game for Boston since June 4.
Considering the precedent this season -- Bello had been 1-6 with a 10.35 ERA in eight starts -- it seemed like a fairly bold move by Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy.
But it turned out to be the right decision, and perhaps the right opponent in the Angels, who are 29th in the Majors in runs. Over five scoreless innings -- which included four hits, two walks, seven strikeouts and 103 pitches -- Bello helped lead the Red Sox to a 5-2 victory over the Angels at Fenway Park, stretching the team’s latest winning streak to five games.
“Obviously when they told me yesterday, I was super happy and my only thought was to have a good outing today and help my team win, and I’m glad it went my way today,” said Bello. “At the beginning, I felt kind of weird, but I was able to find myself again and I was able to get the rhythm back on quickly.”
At 80-65, the Sox are as many as 15 games over .500 for the first time this season. It was a long climb to get there, considering Tracy’s squad was 14 under (32-46) on June 24.
For Bello, this was his first win as a starter since April 12 at St. Louis and the seventh scoreless start of his career.
The decision to pitch Bello on Monday was a calculated one by Tracy and his staff to give the five other starters extra rest for the remainder of the week.
Here were some other takeaways from a strong start to the week.
1. Adley, meet “Pesky!”
Every time a Red Sox hitter hits a flyball down the line in right field at Fenway Park, the entire dugout yells “Pesky.” The foul pole in right is named after the late Johnny Pesky, who hit 13 homers in his time with the Red Sox, but many of them were allegedly hit near, around or off that pole.
There was no question where Rutschman’s towering, 112.1 mph missile landed on Monday afternoon. The hardest-hit ball of his career (per Statcast) hit high off the mesh that surrounds Pesky’s Pole.
After mashing two homers off former batterymate Brandon Young in his return to Baltimore on Thursday, Rutschman took another ex-teammate deep this time in Grayson Rodriguez.
“Played with him for a couple years. He's one of my good buddies,” said Rutschman. “He's got a really good heater, good changeup, and kind of mixes in his spin at times. So I was just trying to get something over the middle of the plate and put a good swing on something.”
2. Duran cuts, bleaches hair and belts No. 20
The struggles at the plate for Jarren Duran this season have been well-chronicled. The left fielder is still searching for answers, and on Monday it looked like he found some. In the second, Duran ripped a solo homer to right, his 20th of the season. He added a double to center in the fifth.
While Duran is hitting just .204 with a .624 OPS, he has provided defense, power and speed (18 stolen bases).
“Listen, not every year is going to go exactly how you want it to,” said Tracy. “You look up there and glance, and he’s got a good shot at 20/20. And with a good couple of weeks, getting to 80-plus RBIs. I know if you asked him, he's hard on himself and it's not what he's wanted, but there's still a lot of production there.”
The pair of extra-base hits happened on the same day he dyed his hair blonde, and the day after he got it cut to a significantly lower length. Coincidence?
3. Durbin ends XBH drought
When Caleb Durbin belted his second grand slam of the season on Aug. 13 in Toronto, he was at the center of Boston’s resurgence as a team. But after that game, Durbin started to slump, perhaps feeling the fatigue of his first full season in the Majors.
Durbin got a rare day off on Saturday, and perhaps that helped refresh him. Durbin belted a single up the middle in the third and a 106.3 mph double off the base of the scoreboard in left-center in the fifth. The double was Durbin’s first extra-base hit since the Toronto grand slam, ending a drought of 90 plate appearances.
Did the day off help?
“Usually it does. You can use your eyes and kind of watch, and it's not just results,” Tracy said. “You use your eyes and watch, and sometimes you see, man, his legs look heavy, he looks tired. He looked more refreshed, for sure. I thought the swings were quicker. It was good to see that today from him.”