Brayan Bello rocked for five home runs as Red Sox fall 10-3 to Orioles, losing skid continues

Just when it feels like things can’t get any worse for the Red Sox, they find a way to prove otherwise.

Fresh off a three-game sweep at the hands of their archrival Yankees, Boston opened a road series in Baltimore looking to reset. Instead, the Orioles overwhelmed them early, making quick work of Brayan Bello and setting the tone from the jump.

Baltimore crushed Bello, launching five home runs off the right-hander in a 10-3 win to hand the Red Sox another lopsided loss to begin their road trip. 

Bello was rocked for eight runs over 3 1/3 innings in the worst outing of his career, surrendering 13 hits with one walk and two strikeouts. The performance put him alongside Wes Farrell (1936) and Danny MacFayden (1931) as the only pitchers in franchise history to allow 13 hits in fewer than four innings. 

Boston fell behind immediately as Gunnar Henderson launched a leadoff homer in the first. Adley Rutschman followed with a two-run shot two batters later, and Dylan Beavers added a solo blast, three home runs in the opening frame to put the Red Sox in an early hole.

Boston answered with a run in the second on Wilyer Abreu’s fourth homer of the season, but after managing just three runs in the entire Yankees series, the early 4-0 deficit proved too much to overcome.

It was Abreu’s first homer in 18 games, and he is now tied for the team lead with first baseman Willson Contreras. Abreu came into the game in a 6-for-40 (.150) skid over his last 11 games, though the Red Sox viewed it as more bad luck than poor performance. He followed it up with an opposite-field double in the sixth.

The Orioles kept pouring it on in the fourth, as Rutschman launched his second homer of the game, a two-run shot to make it 8-1. After Baltimore followed with two more singles, Alex Cora had seen enough and pulled Bello.

The righty showed visible frustration as he walked off, tossing his glove at a chewing gum container in the dugout, though Cora said afterward he understood the emotion.

“They want to perform, they want to be good, and he was having a horrible day,” Cora said. “He’s not upset at game planning or game calling, he’s upset at himself because he expects more and we expect more from him, and I expect more from the team too, and from myself.”

It wasn’t the only time Bello let his emotions get the better of him. After issuing a walk to Leody Taveras in the third, he spiked the rosin bag on the Camden Yards mound as Cora came out for a visit, but left him in the game.

“The reason I went to the mound was like, ‘We don’t need to put the head down,’” Cora said. “We’re here to compete, be prepared. We go out there and do our best. Regardless of the situation, you’ve got to keep competing and he actually did. I’ll give him that. But we’ve got to figure it out.”

Bello appreciated Cora coming to the mound and trying to help him refocus.

“When I got that walk, I lost my confidence a little bit and he came right out and reinstated that confidence back up,” Bello said through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “Just motivated me to keep going.”

“It was an impulse emotional moment,” Bello said of throwing the rosin bag.“Obviously, we’ve got to be better. At the same time, those are all things we need to work on. Those are an impulse, that in the moment, you can’t control.”

Bello has struggled mightily this season, with his ERA ballooning to 9.00 through five starts. He has allowed 22 earned runs on 37 hits, including eight homers. His strikeout-to-walk ratio (15-to-13). His short outing marked the fifth time in eight games that a Red Sox starter failed to get through five innings.

“Yeah, because the stuff is really good,” Cora said when asked if he was surprised by Bello’s struggles. “He’s still throwing hard and the action on the pitches is good. The way he ended spring was a lot better than in the past. In the past, we always had trouble throwing strikes in the spring and the way he ended up was really solid. It’s a little bit surprising.

“You look at it and the stuff looks good, velocity-wise and the actions of the pitches. We’ll sit down tomorrow and break it down. To sit down today and go over it, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Boston faces a looming decision about his place in the rotation, though with Sonny Gray on the injured list, Bello is likely to remain in the mix for now.

Still, after Payton Tolle’s impressive debut against the Yankees on Thursday, the Red Sox may need to consider a reset for Bello in Triple-A Worcester once Gray returns.

Until then, Cora is looking for more consistency from his right-hander.

“I think we stay the course with him,” Cora said. “We have a few days to work and watch, and you have to give them credit, they put good swings. They came out swinging.”

Bello’s frustration is clear, and with each poor start, the margin for error continues to shrink.

“I was trying to compete in the zone,” Bello said. “That was the problem I had in the last few starts. I was able to do it today and they had a good game. There’s nothing you can do about it right now. I know that my pitches are good. I know that I’m a good pitcher. It’s just a bad day.”

Jovani Morán surrendered Baltimore’s sixth home run on a solo shot by Coby Mayo in the fifth, but otherwise settled in, allowing one run on three hits over 2 2/3 innings. Ryan Watson followed with two innings on 43 pitches, helping ease the strain on the bullpen just one game into the road trip.

Baltimore capped the scoring with an RBI single from Rutschman in the seventh. The Orioles catcher went 3-for-5 with two home runs and six RBIs, while Baltimore piled up a season-high 20 hits.

Outside of Abreu’s homer, there wasn’t much for the Red Sox to celebrate Friday night. The offense never found a rhythm against Baltimore’s pitching, though they briefly chipped away at the deficit with a Ceddanne Rafaela fielder’s choice in the fifth and a Marcelo Mayer RBI double in the sixth.

Boston had one last opportunity in the ninth with the bases loaded and no outs but failed to capitalize due to a costly baserunning mistake. Carlos Narváez lifted a shallow fly ball to right that wasn’t deep enough to score Trevor Story. Beavers fired home to Rutschman, who then caught Mayer too far off second base for a double play. Jarren Duran followed with a pop-up to end the game.

The Red Sox went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Contreras has cooled off significantly, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in the loss and now mired in a 0-for-14 stretch with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Boston has now endured both a five-game and a four-game losing streak within its first 26 games of the season.

The Red Sox will need to quickly turn the page as they continue the series in Baltimore, with Saturday’s first pitch moved up four hours to 12:05 p.m. ET due to rain. It sets up a matchup of left-handers, with Garrett Crochet (2-3, 7.88 ERA) facing Trevor Rogers (2-2, 4.08 ERA).