Brayan Bello’s quest to earn his ticket back to the Major Leagues with the Red Sox started two days later than planned, on Saturday in Rochester, N.Y.
Befitting a season in which nothing has been easy for the struggling right-hander, he was supposed to make his debut for Triple-A Worcester on Thursday, and went through his full warm-up routine, only to have the rains come, forcing the game to get postponed.
Two days later, Bello finally got to pitch, and the outing came with some positives.
Over four innings, Bello scattered five hits and two runs, walking none and striking out five. He threw 76 pitches, 46 of them for strikes.
Most noteworthy was that Bello pitched a 1-2-3 first inning. Struggles in that opening frame played a large role in Bello’s demotion to the Minors on June 4. In his eight starts for Boston this season, Bello had a 16.88 ERA in the first inning.
The blemishes took place in the second and third, when Bello’s pitch count rose while Rochester scored one run in each inning.
In the second, he gave up a single, a stolen base and an RBI single.
The Red Wings jumped him with a double to open the third. Bello then uncorked a wild pitch before giving up a seeing-eye RBI single through a drawn-in infield.
He worked around a single to finish his outing with a scoreless fifth inning.