Red Sox Notes: Boston’s Bats Silent While Brayan Bello Pitched Lights Out

The Boston Red Sox lost their fifth straight game for the first time this season after being swept by the Miami Marlins on Thursday night.

On a night with brilliant pitching by starter Brayan Bello, the Red Sox weren’t able to breakthrough off Marlins pitcher Jesús Luzardo, recording just three hits in 6 1/3 innings against the Miami southpaw.

“I mean that’s part of it. There’s days you’re gonna score runs. There’s days you’re going to give it up,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Today, we pitched well. We didn’t hit.”

Cora acknowledged the Red Sox had their opportunities but weren’t able to capitalize, not just in that game, but in the series as a whole and credited Miami.

“We had a chance there in the seventh inning and we didn’t cash in,” Cora said. “They pitched well the whole series. Their lefties are really good.

“There’s a reason they’re trending up. They’re catching the ball. They’e putting good at-bats. Their pitching’s really good. So it’s a tough stretch right here and right now. The pitching we are facing is really good, but we expect to score runs and we know we’re better.”

The Red Sox were outscored. 18-3, in the series and the Marlins put up 33 hits to the Boston’s 21.

The lone upside to the loss was Bello’s spectacular outing from the mound. He didn’t allow the Marlins to register a hit against him until Jean Segura broke up his no-hitter to start the top of the eighth. Bello felt like he was in rhythm when he took the mound in the first inning.

Bello is abs0lutely DEALING through seven 🔥 #RedSox pic.twitter.com/T5EWkRIGIY

— NESN (@NESN) June 29, 2023

“I was (in) command of my pitches,” Bello said through Red Sox translator Carlos Villoria Benítez, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I was able to keep the pitches where I wanted to throw them so I think from the first inning, I thought it was gonna be a good one.”

Bellow threw 63.6% of his pitches for strikes (63-of-99 pitches) and struck out five of the 24 batters his faced in the loss.

“We want him to throw his best pitches as much as possible,” Cora told reporters on NESN’s postgame. “His changeup was good today. His sinker was good. … He has so many weapons and he’s still learning how to use them.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Red Sox-Marlins game:

— The Red Sox are 4-5-1 in onterleague series this year, losing all five series at Fenway Park to National League teams and going 2-13 in those series. Boston is 11-18 against the NL this season.

— Losing to the Marlins, 2-0, in the series finale is only the fifth time this season Boston has been shutout.

— The Red Sox drop to 11-15 in series finales, 5-29 when scoring less than four runs, 15-33 when opponents score first and 10-21 when not recoring a home run.

— The Red Sox travel north of the border on Friday to take on the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of the three-game series with their American League East rivals. First pitch from Rogers Centre is slated for 7:07 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.