Over the first four months of the season hardly a day went by without Brennan Bernardino taking the mound for the Red Sox. The left-hander ranked among baseball’s most heavily used arms up, right up until he was optioned to Triple-A at the trade deadline to make room for newly acquired lefty Steven Matz.

Since then he hasn’t pitched much at all, but now the Red Sox hope he’ll be ready to pick right up where he left off.

Bernardino was called back up to the big league club on Tuesday, replacing fellow lefty Jovani Moran, who was optioned to Triple-A after making two appearances for the Red Sox.

“We used Moran yesterday for two innings and we need another fresh arm,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Bernie did a good job when he was here with us early on, it just happened that we had to send him down too, same situation, and now he’s back.”

“I’m happy to be back here with the team,” Bernardino said. “I didn’t miss a game, just watching all my dogs out here grinding and winning ballgames.”

Over the season’s first four months Bernardino posted a 3.09 ERA over 47 appearances, which as of July 31 ranked second on the team behind only Greg Weissert and tied for 16th among all American League relief pitchers.

He has appeared in four games with Triple-A Worcester over a period of nearly three weeks since Aug. 1, and during that time Bernardino said he spent a lot of time working with the WooSox coaching staff on improving his breaking ball.

“I wanted to get it back to where it was in ’23,” Bernardino said. “And I feel like it’s right around there.”

While Cora said he believes the effort to ramp down his workload began earlier, he’s hopeful the extra rest will still help.

“A lot of people make a big deal about Bernie and Weissert, but I think we were able to reset them right after the All-Star game. I know the number of games was up there and there was a point there I think it was Milwaukee, Atlanta, the Mets, where the usage was way up, and then that reflects two weeks later,” Cora said.

“We were able to reset him and I think it helps that he went down there and didn’t pitch that much, but both of them, they’re in a good place,” he continued. “The starters have done an amazing job going deeper into the games so we don’t have to use the same guys over and over and over again, and hopefully he continues to dominate when he gets an opportunity.”

Extra innings

Wilyer Abreu (right calf tightness) was out of the lineup again on Tuesday and is still day-to-day. … Nathaniel Lowe made his first start as a member of the Red Sox at designated hitter on Tuesday, which Cora attributed to wanting Abraham Toro at first base in case anything were to happen to Alex Bregman at third. … Ceddanne Rafaela was given a day off Tuesday to mentally reset. The outfielder and occasional second baseman is batting .119 with a .362 OPS over his last 12 games.

 

Originally Published: August 19, 2025 at 4:26 PM EDT