▪ Roman Anthony struck out four times, including three times on the minimum nine pitches against righthander Hunter Brown.

▪ Brayan Bello gave up the most earned runs of any Sox starter so far (six).

▪ Ceddanne Rafaela blew an automated ball-strike challenge on the first pitch of an at-bat in the third inning.

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▪ The Red Sox committed two errors on the same play to gift Houston a run in the fifth inning. And all of the Sox, as well as the umpires, forgot the count moments later.

“Things aren’t necessarily going our way right now, but we just [have to] be better as a whole. I [have to] be better,” said Anthony, who took three consecutive middle-ish fastballs for strikes in his first at-bat. “That can’t happen. Not seeing it completely well right now, as is pretty obvious. But just got to be aggressive there, got to set the tone — somehow, some way.”

Bello said, via an interpreter: “It didn’t go the way I expected.”

And manager Alex Cora, of the infield double-oopsie: “Just a bad baseball play.”

The sequence in the bottom of the fifth represented, well, the bottom.

With two outs, Bello induced consecutive swing-and-misses from Cam Smith to begin the at-bat, moving him to a strike away from stranding a pair of runners — and exiting the game with the Red Sox within striking distance.

On the second pitch, Joey Loperfido took off for second base. Catcher Connor Wong’s errant throw short-hopped second baseman Marcelo Mayer and skipped away, allowing Christian Walker to scoot home. When Mayer threw home to try to nab Walker, Bello tried to cut it off but deflected the ball toward the first-base dugout. Loperfido ended up at third.

“The ball was coming straight to me,” Bello said. “I tried to yell at [Mayer] to not throw the ball, because the runner was already getting close to home plate. So when he threw the ball, I tried to try to catch it, and the ball just ran away from me.”

Brayan Bello was charged with six runs (five earned) for his first start of 2026.Jon Shapley/Associated Press

Then it got weirder.

After the throw-it-around chaos, Bello asked Mark Wenger for the count and the home plate umpire told him it was 1 and 1, Bello said. That was wrong; it should have been 0 and 2.

Smith whiffed on the next pitch, too, for what was supposed to be strike three. Wegner had forgotten the count and signaled 1 and 2.

“Apparently I somehow didn’t count the second swinging one,” Wegner said. “Had anybody caught it, we can always go and call replay and check the count. I’ve never done that before. I’m not happy about it. Just made a mistake.”

Smith and Cora said they were unaware in the moment.

“No one on the field said a word,” Wegner said.

Bello threw six more pitches — only three of them balls, not four — and walked Smith, then left the game.

In his season debut, Bello lasted 4 innings and gave up five earned runs (six overall) and eight hits. He had more walks (three) than strikeouts (two). And all of the free passes came with two outs.

“If I let them put the ball in play or any other outcome, things might’ve been different,” Bello said.

Houston (4-2) scored early and often against Bello, who had trouble finishing innings and was let down by his defense. Rafaela got twisted around in center on Yordan Alvarez’s RBI double off the wall in the first inning. Anthony’s throw home in the third on Walker’s two-run single was a two-hopper up the line, allowing Carlos Correa to eke by Wong and across the plate.

Against Brown, the Astros’ top starting pitcher and No. 3 finisher in American League Cy Young Award voting last year, the Red Sox didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning. That was Wong’s RBI double, his second extra-base hit in as many starts.

Brown finished six innings having allowed just that one run and one hit. He struck out eight and walked two.

“He’s good,” Anthony said, “but I just [have to] be better.”

Since reaching base four times in an Opening Day win, Anthony is 1 for 17 with 10 strikeouts — a small-sample performance that tracks exactly with the Sox’ success or lack thereof.

“It’s five games,” Anthony said. “We’ve got 155-plus, so we’re going to be all right.”

Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.