BOSTON — Faced with the prospect of helping his team sweep its archrivals Sunday at Fenway, Red Sox starter Brayan Bello threw out his usual plan of attack and was rewarded with his best start of the season.
Bello, who had experienced an uneven — and often inefficient — start to the season, used a cutter-heavy approach to dominate New York over seven shutout innings in Sunday’s 2-0 win. He allowed just three hits and issued three walks while striking out eight batters in his longest outing of 2025.
Bello’s outing was so good, in fact, that manager Alex Cora showed trust in him in a way he hasn’t before. Virtually everyone in a sell-out crowd of 36,475 figured Bello was done when he finished the sixth inning with a strikeout on the 96th pitch he threw. Instead, Cora let him pitch the seventh — and Bello delivered with a 1-2-3 frame that ended his day with a career-high 114 pitches.
“His stuff was good at the end,” said Cora. “He was still good. So we rolled with him and he earned that one. He was outstanding.”
After a rough May that saw Bello get through five innings only once in six starts, he showed encouraging signs with two long outings (6 innings against the Angels and 6⅓ against the Rays) to start June. On Sunday, though, he reached a different gear with a unique mix that worked to perfection.
In 10 starts before Sunday, Bello had thrown his cutter just 23 times, making up 2.5% of a pitch mix that has relied on his sinker (38.5%), sweeper (27.1%), changeup (16.2%) and four-seamer (14.2%). But he threw it 15 times in the first two innings Sunday and set the tone early against a Yankees lineup that featured six left-handed hitters (including the switch-hitting Jasson Domínguez).
“It was a little bit different today, especially with all those lefties,” Cora said. “The cutter was playing. Wonger (Connor Wong) did an amazing job behind the plate.”
Bello varied the mix in the first, when he escaped an early jam after Trent Grisham hit a leadoff double and Cody Bellinger walked. But he honed in on the cut fastball as the game went on and by the end, had thrown 38 of them (33%). He got four whiffs and nine called strikes.
“The cutter, for me, was a key pitch… That was the plan today,” Bello said, though translator Carlos Villoría Benitez. “We saw that the cutter was a good pitch against them and I was able to get a feel for that pitch, to locate it. I feel like it was a very good pitch for me today.”
Cora, historically, has been someone who is aggressive with his bullpen, leading to early hooks with his rotation. But just like he did two weeks ago when he left Garrett Crochet in for the seventh inning at 99 pitches against the Braves, Cora trusted his starter Sunday at Fenway.
“It’s up to them, to be honest with you,” Cora said. “For a while, it wasn’t good. They were scoring in the first person, they were inefficient and Bello was throwing 100 pitches in 4 ⅔ (innings). The last six or seven (games), they’ve been efficient and they’ve been good so we’ll continue to do that if the stuff is good.”
Bello has always pitched well against New York and now has a 2.21 ERA in 53 innings over nine starts against the Bronx Bombers. It’s his lowest-career ERA against any team he has faced for at least 15 innings. His performance was the latest masterpiece in a strong week for Red Sox starters, who have produced six straight quality strikes and are 6-0 with a 2.62 ERA and 44 strikeouts in the club’s last eight games.
“A few starts back, I was fighting to get that confidence,” Bello acknowledged. “I’m glad Alex gave me that confidence. Also, I’m proud of myself to be able to go out there in the seventh and throw a shutout inning.”