BOSTON -- Brayan Bello's start was somewhat symbolic of the recently completed Red Sox homestand -- good enough to make it respectable.
Forgotten to a degree after the offseason pickup of Garrett Crochet and free-agent signing of Walker Buehler, the 25-year-old Bello continued his strong start to 2025.
Though he didn’t qualify for the victory after getting pulled by manager Alex Cora because of his high pitch count (83 overall, with 44 strikes), Bello held Texas scoreless over 4 2/3 innings in Boston’s 5-0 getaway victory on Thursday afternoon at Fenway Park.
Bello matched his career high with five walks, giving up four hits to go with one strikeout. Sort of like that Aerosmith song: “Livin’ On The Edge,” Bello was “erratic” like Cora said, but he found a way to keep the Rangers off the scoreboard.
“That’s a hard way to live,” Cora said, smiling. “I believe his stuff is elite, I believe he can be more aggressive in the zone. Obviously, we take what we have right now. Today was good, it wasn’t great.”
Rafael Devers hit a solo homer and drove in two runs for the Red Sox, who won their second straight to finish off what could have been a rough homestand at 3-3.
The Rangers had 12 of their 21 batters reach against Bello, who was helped by a nice backhand stab by third baseman Alex Bregman on Adolis García’s first-inning grounder. Bello also got out of a tough jam in the third.
“Yeah, a lot of walks,” Bello said through team interpreter Daveson Perez. “A few pitches that weren’t executed the way I wanted, but I was able to get out of those [innings] and go four, almost five innings and keep us with the lead.”
In his fourth start this season, the right-handed Bello lowered his ERA to 2.01 overall (1.10 in his three Fenway starts). Better yet, like his outing on Thursday, he continued to find ways to get key outs with runners on base. He’s now retired 14 of 15 batters with RISP after the Rangers went 0-for-5 against him.
After Bello was gone, the bullpen took over from there. Justin Slaten (1-3) worked out of a two-on, two-out jam and pitched 1 1/3 innings. Garrett Whitlock pitched the seventh, while Liam Hendriks finished the last two innings to complete the shutout.
The Red Sox improved to 4-0 in Bello’s starts this season and 23-10 since the start of last year.
So, it wasn’t a pretty start -- a lot like the homestand -- but it got the desired results with a six-game road trip on tap starting Friday night in Kansas City.
“Disappointing last series,” shortstop Trevor Story said. “Really good sign that we bounced back, especially after losing the first game against a tough Texas team that pitched really well and has a lot of great players.
“To be able to bounce back and get these last two, hopefully we can ride that momentum into Kansas City and Detroit. We feel good about it.”