Brayan Bello Growing, Learning As Starting Pitcher For Red Sox

On a night when the Red Sox were only able to collect four hits and were struck out 17 times, they needed their pitching staff to come up big and Brayan Bello did just that.

Boston was able to end their two-game losing streak by defeating the Chicago White Sox on Friday night largely in part to Bello being able to pitch deep into the game while only surrendering one run on six hits.

“My goal is always to try to go deep into games so I can help the bullpen,” Bello said through Red Sox translator Carlos Villoria Benítez, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “That’s been my mentality since I came up here. I’m trying to get quick outs and not trying to strike anybody out. That’s been the key.”

With Bello delivering 104 pitches, 65 for strikes, the 24-year-old wasn’t ready to come out of the game after pitching 6 2/3 innings but Red Sox manager Alex Cora didn’t pull the young pitcher due to pitch count; it was strictly due to match-ups.

“At one point he looked up at the scoreboard and his reaction was like he was disappointed because he saw the pitch count,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “… I said, ‘Bro, you were looking at the wrong pitcher. You are in a good spot.’ He wants to go deep in the game.”

Bello debuted a new pitch in the game — a cutter that he started working on earlier in the week.

“I started working on that pitch this week.”

Brayan Bello on implementing the cutter into his pitch selection

“He’s working on a lot of things and he’s not afraid to use them in the game,” Cora said. “So it’s something that over the course of the week he’s been working on and he used it (Friday).”

Bello added a little clarification on how the pitch came to fruition.

“I started working on the pitch this week,” Bello explained through Villoria Benítez. “I know my slider, I haven’t been able to control it as I’ve wanted to. So, I tried it (Friday) and it was good to some hitters and it got me out of trouble a couple of times.”

Cora is pleased with Bello’s growth and according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long, Bello has a 2.45 ERA in his last 10 starts.

“He’s getting better,” Cora said. “(Friday) was a challenge quote-unquote on regular rest against a lineup that hit the ball out of the ballpark and all that. He gave us more than enough.”