CLEVELAND -- On Friday, Brayan Bello dug into the mound at Progressive Field and threw his first pitch of the game against Guardians leadoff hitter Travis Bazzana.
In years prior, Bello making his first pitch of the game against a leadoff hitter would have made sense, considering he had exclusively worked as a starter.
But on Friday, Bello’s pitch came in the second inning with his team trailing 4-0 after opener Tyler Samaniego had a disastrous first inning where the Guardians recorded six hits and batted around.
While Bello was able to stop the bleeding with seven scoreless innings in relief, it wasn’t enough for the ailing Red Sox, who fell, 4-3, to fall to 23-33 on the season and 10 games under .500 for the first time since 2020.
Not only did Bello allow just four hits in his outing, but he didn’t allow a Guardians baserunner to get past second base and retired the last 12 batters he faced.
Bello working behind an opener has been a bit of a double-edged sword for the Red Sox, as it’s clearly helped him find a new level while also simultaneously putting the team in an early hole. Friday marked the fourth time Bello has worked behind an opener, and the Red Sox allowed a combined nine runs across the four opening frames of those games.
“He was awesome,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “He came in and quieted that game down pretty quickly and gave us a shot. He was as good as we could ask for.”
The Red Sox have a clear reason to use an opener behind Bello, given he has a 11.57 ERA in the first inning this year (nine earned runs in seven innings). But they also need to figure out a better way to get him into situations where he’s not pitching from behind.
“I’m in a mode where I want to prove that I can start and can go five, six innings plus, and what better way to do that [than] by doing it in the role they give me,” Bello said through a translator.
In Bello's first outing with an opener on May 5 against the Tigers, lefty Jovani Morán allowed two runs in the first inning (though Boston’s offense scored enough runs to make it a moot point). The next time out on May 12 against the Phillies, Morán allowed one run in a game the Red Sox lost, 2-1. Morán gave up two runs in the opening frame against the Twins on May 23, Bello’s most recent bulk outing.
“It’s hard to figure that out,” Tracy said. “Obviously you can’t ignore the fact that Bello’s been very successful [having an opener], and ultimately having him be successful in a starter role would be great.”
The problem this time was Samaniego, who allowed six straight singles and a sacrifice fly with one out in the first.
“I felt like I started well, but left too many pitches up that caught too much of the plate,” Samaniego said. “That loss is 100% on me.”
By the time he struck out Brayan Rocchio to end the inning, the Red Sox were in a deep hole they weren’t able to climb out of.
“It happened fast,” Tracy said.
Bello’s dominant outing means he now has a 0.71 ERA in his four outings working behind an opener (25 1/3 innings) after having a 9.68 ERA in 30 2/3 innings as a starter.
“I don’t know that you can make sense of it, but the most important thing is that he looked great,” Tracy said.
Tracy also said that Bello had a “swagger” about him on the mound, which the pitcher agreed with.
“I feel really comfortable with throwing all my pitches,” Bello said.
Boston’s offense made the game interesting by tallying three runs in the fifth inning off Guardians starter Slade Cecconi, but it wasn't able to get the game-tying run across.
The Red Sox had a second-inning scoring chance snuffed out when Guardians left fielder Angel Martínez threw out Mickey Gasper at the plate on a 96.8 mph throw (the hardest of his career).
Gasper is the fourth Red Sox runner to be thrown out at the plate over the past week.
“It was aggressive,” Tracy said of the send from interim third-base coach Chad Epperson. “It looked like Mickey slowed a little bit going into third, and give credit to a perfect throw that was right on the money to get him.”