Brayan Bello surrendered six runs in the first inning and eight in five innings overall Thursday in a loss to the Orioles.
Bello has had success behind openers, but the openers haven’t had success in front of him, which probably played a role in him working the first today. It turned into a miserable inning, with the defense contributing by giving away a couple of outs. Bello then cruised through the second, third and fourth before giving up a couple of runs in the ninth. Bello’s velocity was great today; his 96.6 mph average on his sinker was 1.9 mph better than usual this year. Still, he gave up 11 hard-hit balls anyway. He’s now 2-6 with a 6.34 ERA, but the Red Sox will probably throw him against the Rays next week anyway. They just might use an opener ahead of him.