Why Red Sox Pitcher Brayan Bello Spent All-Star Break Working Out

When the Boston Red Sox entered the Major League Baseball All-Star break after sweeping the Oakland Athletics, most of the players and coaching staff took the time off to relax and reset.

Well, except for Brayan Bello.

Bello traveled to his native Dominican Republic, but according to The Athletic's Jen McCaffrey, the 24-year-old pitcher spent his time at the Red Sox Dominican Academy in El Toro to work on his craft by throwing side sessions and working out.

"I didn't want to break the good string of starts that I was on at the time," Bello told McCaffrey through translator Daveson Perez. "And at the Academy, they have the gym facility, the trainers to give me massages and stretch me out. They always told me coming up through the system that the Academy is here for whatever you need and I wanted to take advantage of all the resources I had."

In his first start following the break, Bello gave up three runs on eight hits through six innings of work in the Red Sox's win over the Chicago Cubs on July 14 at Wrigley Field. He threw 68.8% of his pitches for strikes (64-of-93 pitches), striking out five while not walking a single batter of the 25 he faced.

"I didn't want to break the good string of starts that I was on at the time."

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Boston Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello

Bello signed with Boston as an international free agent in 2017 and spent his first professional season playing with the Dominican Summer League Red Sox and Gulf Coast Red Sox in 2018. When the right-handed pitcher visited the Academy, he was surprised by the amount of players wanting to talk with him.

"When I went there, it was a big group of all the pitchers in the Academy and I really didn't expect all of that," Bello told McCaffrey. "They were asking me for photos and telling me they watch me. And when I got up there to talk to them, my mind wanted to give them motivation and speak from my experience of -- this is what happened when I was here like you guys, this is what happened when I got called up and what life is like in America, and little tips they can use as they move forward."

Bello is 7-5 on the season with a 3.14 ERA, allowing 30 runs on 81 hits across 86 innings pitched. He has struck out 75 of the 361 batters he's faced while walking 22 and has emerged as the ace for the Red Sox.