dp“I don’t know where he was at the beginning of the season, I was joking with him,” said Willson Contreras, who set a career high with his 25th home run. “His stuff is crazy good. I mean, throwing 98 [miles per hour] consistently. The sinker is moving well. He’s executing to get to two strikes, and then with two strikes, he’s getting even better.”
Interim manager Chad Tracy said: “Hugely important. And he’s been very, very good in that role for a while now.”
About half of Bello’s bullpen sample size came in de facto starts, when he was in the rotation and would enter the game after a reliever handled the first inning or so. He was so ineffective as an actual starter (10.35 ERA in eight chances) that the Red Sox demoted him in early June.
Since returning from Triple-A Worcester in mid-July, Bello has occupied more of a true long relief role — less predictable, more thankless, still important.
“There’s ups and downs in a baseball season, and I always thought that a stretch like this was coming and just was a matter of time,” Bello said through an interpreter. “I feel happy and proud to be able to help the team win every time they give me the ball and I’m able to perform.”
Bello teetered in his final frame, when Arizona (66-60) loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning. He held Geraldo Perdomo to a sacrifice fly (after a hard line drive down the right-field line landed just foul) and struck out Jordan Lawlar (after a homer-length foul ball near the Pesky Pole).
With that, Bello had done it again: top-notch long relief, this time in a bullpen game, with the Red Sox (67-58) running out a parade of relievers instead of a regular starting pitcher.
“Does this mean Brayan can’t start anymore? That’s not the case,” Tracy said. “It’s difficult to ignore how very, very effective he has been coming out of the bullpen in a bulk relief role and taking down innings. So I don’t think that we’ve closed the book on that by any means. It just feels like that’s the way to do it right now.
“I think in his mind [Bello] probably still long-term believes, ‘I’m a starter,’ and I think we believe that. But right now, it’s about winning ballgames, and he’s willing to take down whatever role we need him to take down for us to help us win a game. That’s what he’s going to do, and I think that’s probably part of what started getting him over this hump. He wants to be a part of this and contribute. So, and right now, he’s doing a great job with that.”
Does Bello like this gig?
“It’s working,” he said.
While Bello worked, the batters backed him up. They finished 6 for 13 with runners in scoring position, a major improvement over their 13-for-76 (.171) mark over the prior nine games.
Every member of the starting lineup had at least one RBI, the first time the Sox did so since 2023.
Everybody except Andruw Monasterio (0 for 4) had at least one hit.
And nobody struck out, a first for the Sox since 2010.
“I didn’t even know that,” Tracy said. “That’s crazy.”
On an individual level: Ceddanne Rafaela collected three doubles, Caleb Durbin reached base four times, and Mickey Gasper hit his first home run of the year.
In his Fenway debut as a Red Sox, Adley Rutschman went 2 for 5 with an RBI double, a welcomed turn after he toiled to the tune of 1 for 17 in his first week with the Sox.
“Just going out there before the game, being in the other bullpen, and just having fans actually cheer for you when you’re in the bullpen — it is a different feeling,” Rutschman said. “Across the board, just feeling that energy. It was a quality game at all points. So, really cool.”
The Sox struck for three runs in three innings against rookie Mitch Bratt, a not-so-crafty lefthander whose fastball averaged only 89.6 miles per hour. They blew it open by attacking righthander Zack Littell for eight more in 3⅔.
On the night, the Red Sox scored as many runs as they did all weekend in Pittsburgh.
“We had a lot of guys going through some ups and downs,” Tracy said. “To see some of those guys square up multiple balls today and feel good about it is a good sign.”
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
