HOUSTON -- Given a long leash despite struggling with two-out walks, Brayan Bello had a tough start to his 2026 season as the Red Sox suffered their fourth straight loss, bowing 9-2 to the Astros on Tuesday night at Daikin Park.
With Boston completing the first cycle through its rotation, Bello surrendered six runs (five earned) on eight hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.
“I battled out there. It didn’t go the way I wanted it to go,” Bello, through interpreter Carlos Villoria, said of his 92-pitch night, which included 58 strikes and 34 balls. “If I let them put the ball in play or any other outcome, things might have been different. They scored four runs out of those walks, and that’s on me.”
Bello fell behind quickly on a first-inning double by Yordan Alvarez. A two-out walk to Jose Altuve in the third preceded a double by Carlos Correa and two-run single by Christian Walker.
Alvarez pulverized a misplaced curveball a Statcast-projected 399 feet to right field to make it 4-1 with one out in the fifth. Bello was one strike from escaping before issuing a two-out walk to Correa. Christian Walker doubled Correa to third, and Joey Loperfido singled to make it 5-1 with runners on the corners.
Then things got really mixed up. Bello got a swinging strike to start the next at-bat to Cam Smith, who swung at the next pitch with Loperfido breaking for second. Catcher Connor Wong’s low throw bounced away from second baseman Marcelo Mayer, prompting Walker to break for the plate. Mayer’s throw home went off Bello’s glove, allowing Loperfido to take third on the play’s second error.
Bello said that before the next pitch, he asked for a count clarification from plate umpire Mark Wegner.
“I asked him because I thought the first pitch was a strike and that he swung at the second pitch,” Bello said. “None of that took me out of my focus on that inning. He just gave me the count; he gave me 1-1. It was clear that it was 1-1.”
Well, clear as mud. It should have been 0-2. Smith then swung and missed at what should have been a third strike, but Wegner then held up one and two fingers, and Smith’s at-bat continued. Smith would draw another two-out walk on nine pitches, though only three were actually balls.
That ended Bello’s night after 4 2/3 innings, instead of five, but the Astros did no more damage in the fifth.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora explained his thinking on keeping Bello in as long as he did after Alvarez’s home run.
“Where we’re at bullpen-wise,” Cora began, “Watty [Ryan Watson] pitched 1 1/3, [Jovani] Moran pitched two, we’ve got an [afternoon] game tomorrow. So you play for today, try to win the game, but at that point, nothing was happening. We have two outs and two strikes [on Correa], and we’re one pitch away from getting out of the inning.”
Cora admitted Bello’s effectiveness was waning.
“Early on, I thought the stuff was good, and then at the end, he didn’t have it,” Cora said. “I think he kind of ran out of gas at the end.”
Said Bello: “I felt very good with all my pitches today. With the curveball, I feel very confident. Obviously, with the Alvarez home run, I wanted to throw it on the ground. I missed that pitch, and that’s why he hit it.”
Tormenting the Red Sox is nothing new for Alvarez. His 2-for-3 night left him with a lifetime .411 batting average and .804 slugging percentage in 32 games against them (including the postseason), both records for any opposing player with at least 125 plate appearances.
Compounding matters, Boston’s struggling offense was rendered ineffective by Astros ace Hunter Brown, who struck out eight while allowing one hit in six innings.
Boston didn’t get its first hit until Wong’s fifth-inning RBI double, which followed a two-out walk to Mayer. Ceddanne Rafaela homered off Cody Bolton in the eighth for Boston’s other run.