BOSTON — Over the first few months of the season as the Boston Red Sox rotation dominated, Brayan Bello remained the outlier, struggling to a 5.32 ERA in 17 starts.
Yet over the past two months, it’s been a different story for Bello. He’s quietly turned a corner, putting together a second half closer to what was expected of him after signing a six-year, $55 million extension this spring.
As the summer has ticked by, Bello has slowly dipped his ERA under 5.00. On Wednesday night, all of that work culminated in the best performance of his career.
The 25-year-old cruised through the Toronto Blue Jays lineup, allowing just two hits and a walk while striking out nine over eight scoreless innings in a dominant 3-1 victory. He threw 97 pitches, 66 for strikes and registered 15 swings and misses.
“I definitely think that was one of my better starts in the big leagues, in all phases I thought I was one of the best,” Bello said through team translator Daveson Perez.
Brayan Bello’s 8Ks thru 7. pic.twitter.com/FtSQ1N5J3a
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) August 29, 2024
Bello got an early lead thanks, yet again, to Jarren Duran, who led off with a single and eventually scored on a Wilyer Abreu single. The right-hander clung to that 1-0 lead through seven frames, with crisp innings and effective pitches, navigating a Blue Jays lineup that’s crushed him in the past. Bello entered the night with a career 6.96 ERA in seven starts against Toronto.
But on Wednesday, he mixed his pitches expertly, never needing more than 16 pitches an inning.
“That was amazing. That was fun to watch,” manager Alex Cora said. “Under control. Pitch by pitch, he didn’t get ahead, right? The sinker was good. The four-seamer was great. The change up, slider was outstanding. His best outing in the big leagues against a team that has given him trouble. He was able to keep them off balance. Used the fastball enough to keep them honest. He was outstanding.”
Part of Bello’s success since the beginning of July has been incorporating the four-seamer just a bit more. Bello’s four-seamer was crushed to the tune of a .310 average and .646 slugging percentage last season and because of that, he dumped it from his arsenal in the first half.
But by reintroducing the pitch in early July, Bello has given hitters one more element to worry about, making him less predictable. Rather than overusing the four-seamer like last year, he’s used it judiciously, in the right spots, never throwing it more than 20 percent of the time since he first reincorporated it on July 3.
On Wednesday, Bello sprinkled seven four-seamers into his mix, getting Daulton Varsho to strike out looking on one in the seventh.
“It’s like a fourth pitch for me and I think it’s really helped me, against lefties to give them a different look, change their eyesight. So it’s been a huge pitch for me,” he said.
Learning when to rely on certain pitches to certain batters in specific counts has been part of the evolution for Bello.
“I do believe he’s still a work in progress,” Cora said. “This is not the final product. There’s more. And with the adjustments we made two months ago, to reintroduce the four-seamer, probably he felt more comfortable.”
Bello stranded Addison Barger after a one-out double in the second, wiped out a leadoff walk with a double play in the fifth and left Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on base after a one-out single in the seventh. He had never recorded an out in the eighth inning in 63 career starts, but at 84 pitches after the seventh, Cora hadn’t taken the ball away from him yet.
“When I realized that they weren’t going to take me out after that seventh, I felt, ‘Oh, well, I feel really good. I feel good mentally, focused,’ so I was excited to go back out there,” Bello said.
After three quick outs in the eighth, Tyler O’Neill crushed a two-run homer for insurance and Kenley Jansen closed it out.
“We’re in the middle of trying to get into the playoffs right now,” Bello said. “So I really wanted to win this game, so that we could keep moving forward like we have.”
The win helped the Red Sox pull within three games of the third wild-card spot as the Minnesota Twins lost on Wednesday. The regular season ends one month from Thursday and the Red Sox will need every bit of this version of Bello to get there.
(Photo of Bello: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
