Brayan Bello gives Red Sox a chance, offense can’t complete comeback in 4-3 loss to Guardians

It’s becoming increasingly perplexing how different Brayan Bello looks depending on his role.

As a traditional starter, the right-hander has struggled mightily this season. Yet when the Red Sox deploy him behind an opener as a bulk-innings reliever, he has often looked like a completely different pitcher.

If Boston can eventually find a reliable opener capable of navigating the first inning or two, the unconventional arrangement may actually become a viable path forward for Bello.

Unfortunately, the opener was once again the problem Friday night.

The Red Sox turned to Tyler Samaniego to open the series against Cleveland. The left-hander struck out former No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana to begin the game, but everything unraveled from there.

Samaniego surrendered six consecutive hits and a sacrifice fly as the Guardians quickly built a four-run cushion. The early deficit proved too much to overcome in what ultimately became a 4-3 Red Sox loss.

For a team searching for answers behind Bello, the opener experiment continues to produce mixed results.

“I tried to keep my routine the same, I tried to come out of the bullpen, tried to keep it normal,” said Samaniego, who has never started as an opener in his MLB career. “I felt like it started well, I left some pitches that got a little bit too much plate and good hitters do what good hitters do and just put the ball in play. It was a bunch of singles, I got singled to death, it’s tough, this loss is 100 percent on me.”

Rhys Hoskins got the inning started with an RBI single before Angel Martínez followed with a run-scoring hit of his own. The inning grew worse when Ceddanne Rafaela bobbled Martínez’s single in center field, allowing a second run to score on the error. Patrick Bailey later added a sacrifice fly as Cleveland built a quick four-run advantage.

By the time Samaniego escaped the inning, he had faced nine batters and thrown 22 pitches, putting the Red Sox in an early hole they ultimately could not overcome.

“It happened fast, I don’t think there’s any one thing to point to,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said of the first inning. “Like they had I think three in and he was at 13 pitches, they jumped him early in the count on some fastballs and breaking balls, so it just happened fast.”

Samaniego went one inning, allowing four earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts. 

From there, Tracy turned the ball over to Bello, who calmed things down. The righty held the Guardians scoreless over the next seven innings. 

He retired the final 12 batters he faced and came off after completing the eighth with four hits and no walks allowed while striking out five.

“He was awesome, and obviously the way it started he came in and quieted that game down pretty quickly and gave us a shot,” Tracy said. “Pounded the strike zone, changeup was working, cutter in the right location, ahead in the count, he was as good as you could ask for.”

Bello has looked good pitching out of the bullpen, posting a 0.71 ERA over 25 1/3 innings versus a staggering 9.68 ERA as a starter this season. 

“I don’t know that you can make sense of it, but the most important thing for me right now is that he looked great,” Tracy said when trying to figure out why Bello has been better as a reliever. “And also not only looked great but he had a swagger about him on the mound that we’ve seen in the past, so I’m mostly very pleased to see how he threw the ball.”

Bello said regardless of his role, he wants to prove he can still be someone the Red Sox can count on.

“I’m in a mode where I want to prove that I can start and that I can go my five-six innings plus,” Bello said via interpreter Daveson Perez. “And what better way to do that than in the role that was given to me, making the most of it and putting up zeroes.”

The openers in Bello’s four bulk-relief appearances, however, have combined to allow nine earned runs in just four innings. That works out to a staggering 20.25 ERA.

At some point, the Red Sox will need to determine whether the solution is getting Bello back on track as a traditional starter or finding a more effective way to bridge the game to him.

Because while Bello has largely held up his end of the bargain in the bulk role, the opener strategy is losing its effectiveness when Boston is consistently playing from behind before he even takes the mound.

“It’s hard to figure that out, you can’t ignore the fact that Bello has been very successful in it, ultimately having him be that was in the starter role would be awesome but we’re still trying,” Tracy said.

“Obviously we’ve had some of those where we haven’t gotten off to the best start and he comes in trailing, but credit our guys for battling back again.”

With the Red Sox staring at an early four-run deficit, they finally showed some life in the fifth inning against Guardians starter Slade Cecconi.

Boston strung together four consecutive hits to chase Cecconi from the game and cut Cleveland’s lead to a single run.

Mickey Gasper and Isiah Kiner-Falefa opened the inning with back-to-back singles before Marcelo Mayer delivered an RBI single. Caleb Durbin followed with an RBI double, and Jarren Duran capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to 4-3.

It proved to be Boston’s lone offensive breakthrough of the night.

The Red Sox had an opportunity to get on the board earlier but squandered it because of another baserunning mistake.

After a Guardian's error at shortstop opened the door for a potential run, Gasper was thrown out at home plate trying to score. The play was not particularly close and continued a troubling trend for a Red Sox club that has repeatedly run into outs at home plate in recent weeks.

“It was aggressive obviously,” Tracy said of third base coach Chad Epperson’s send. “The other combination of that is it looked like Mickey maybe slowed a little bit going into third and then give credit to another perfect throw right on the money to get him.”

Boston mounted one final threat in the eighth inning but couldn’t find the tying run.

With two outs, Willson Contreras and Masataka Yoshida delivered back-to-back singles to put runners at the corners. Yoshida’s hit moved pinch-runner Nick Sogard to third base, bringing the tying run just 90 feet from home.

But Gasper was unable to capitalize, grounding out to first base to end the inning and leave the potential tying run stranded.

That proved to be Boston’s last legitimate opportunity.

Guardians closer Cade Smith took over in the ninth inning and recorded his 20th save of the season. Kiner-Falefa opened the frame with a single, finishing the night 2-for-4, but Smith retired the next three hitters in order to secure the victory.

The loss dropped the Red Sox to 23-33 on the season. Boston has now lost six of its last seven games and continues to search for consistency as the calendar approaches June.

The Red Sox will look to even the series Saturday afternoon when Sonny Gray (5-1, 3.71 ERA) takes the mound against Cleveland rookie Parker Messick (6-1, 2.24 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET at Progressive Field.