Rafael Devers Had ‘Perfect Excuse’ For Brayan Bello’s Subdued Energy Vs. Royals

Alex Cora was a bit concerned about Brayan Bello early in Monday night’s game at Fenway Park.

Bello wasn’t pitching poorly at any point of his 6 2/3-inning outing against the Kansas City Royals, but he didn’t bring the kind of juice he typically carries to the pitcher’s mound. The optics prompted an inquiry from Cora, who revealed an in-game assessment from one of Bello’s teammates.

“Kind of like grinded through it early,” Bello told reporters, per MassLive. “I asked him, ‘What’s going on?’ Seems like … energy-wise, he was low early on. Raffy (Devers) had the perfect excuse. He said (Bello) had a big plate of rice and beans before the game. That’s what Raffy said. But little by little, he gained energy. Got moving inside and did a good job. You can see, lefties getting out there with the changeup, making adjustments. But that’s part of the process. That’s what the big leagues are. Teams are going to make adjustments. They’ve got a bunch of lefties and you saw them hanging in there with him. He didn’t get frustrated. He went to the fastball. … Overall, what we needed. A deep outing, a good one and he gave us a chance to win.”

Josh Winckowski’s seventh-inning struggles prevented Bello from picking up his ninth win of the season. But more importantly for the 24-year-old and the Red Sox, they were able to snap their losing streak at four games. Pablo Reyes’ ninth-inning, walk-off grand slam allowed Boston to let out a big sigh of relief.

The Red Sox will try to start a win streak Tuesday when they host the Royals for Game 2 of their four-game series.