Brayan Bello Gave Message To Chris Sale Amid Series Vs. Astros

After the first two games of a four-game set with the Houston Astros, the Boston Red Sox were reeling and their season was in jeopardy of completely slipping away.

The Red Sox were dealt back-to-back ugly losses, making a combined five errors in the pair of defeats as they slowly faded from the American League playoff picture.

But Brayan Bello wasn’t going to let the Red Sox go down like that.

Instead, the 24-year-old put it on his shoulders to try to help the Red Sox get back on track. Bello also made sure that Chris Sale knew he shouldered some responsibility in helping carry out that same mission.

“It was very important for us to split this series,” Bello said through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “When we lost the first two games, I talked to Chris Sale. I told him, ‘It’s up to us to try to split the series and try to win these two games.’ And we did it. We’re happy to come up with a winning road trip.”

Sale and Bello both did their part. Sale grinded through five innings Wednesday as the Red Sox outlasted the Astros in 10 innings. The veteran lefty ended up allowing four runs on six hits while issuing one walk and striking out nine.

Bello followed that showing up with a strong performance of his own, tossing seven innings of one-run ball in a dominant 17-1 win Thursday at Minute Maid Park.

The interaction between Sale and Bello was unique not because of the message, but because of who the message came from. Many would have expected a team leader in Sale to voice it, but instead it was the youngster stepping up and being outspoken at a critical point in the season.

“That was something that I told him,” Bello said. “He was walking in front of me and I said, ‘Hey, man, this is something that we need to do.'”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora certainly was glad Bello backed up his words. Boston needed the right-hander to work deep into the game with the bullpen taxed and Kenley Jansen dealing with a leg injury. Bello did just that, throwing 64 of his 103 pitches for strikes. It was the most pitches in a game for Bello since throwing 107 on July 5 against the Texas Rangers.

“We kept grinding all the way until the end,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “It was a good effort by everybody. Great effort by Brayan going deep into the game. We needed that.”