Brayan Bello Puts Hand Up After Red Sox Loss To Yankees

The Boston Red Sox are in a tailspin. After losing a second straight game to the New York Yankees, their lead over the Texas Rangers for the final American League Wild Card spot is just two games.

On Saturday, the game unfolded similarly to the one played the day before. The Yankees jumped ahead in the first inning against Red Sox starter Brayan Bello, and the Red Sox didn’t have the firepower to keep up, falling by a final score of 5-3.

For Bello, it was his worst start in about a month. The last time he allowed more than three runs in a start came back on August 10 against the San Diego Padres, when he allowed five runs over 5 2/3 innings.

On Saturday, he allowed four runs over five innings. He walked three hitters and only struck out four. After the game, he wasn’t happy with his performance.

“It was a bad start for me. I don’t think I was competing from the first inning to the last inning,” Bello said through his translator.

The outing was a grind for Bello. In the first inning alone, he threw 26 pitches and battled through traffic. The Yankees only scored two runs, but the inning could have gotten out of hand if not for back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.

“I didn’t have the command today and I wasn’t attacking the hitters. I feel like the main thing for me was getting ahead, and I wasn’t doing that,” Bello said.

Bello has been excellent when ahead in the count this season, limiting hitters to a .191 batting average when he’s ahead in the count. On Saturday, he couldn’t get into those counts. He threw 37% of his pitches from behind in the count, well above his season rate of 26.6%.

His four-seam fastball didn’t return a single whiff, and just one called strike on 16 pitches. His changeup’s called strike plus whiff rate was just 17%. Going forward, Bello needs to attack hitters and gain count leverage to be successful.

The Red Sox conclude their three-game series with the Yankees on Sunday night.