He scattered six hits and two walks to hold St. Louis to two runs. And he struck out two. Bello’s only blemish most of the way was Jordan Walker’s home run, his majors-leading seventh of the season, in the second inning.
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Bello teetered in the sixth, when the Cardinals loaded the bases with one out, but limited the damage to one additional run — and even amid all that traffic needed just 17 pitches in the inning.
It helped that Willson Contreras’s two-run home run in the first inning provided a lead before he took the mound.
“The lead gave him freedom to attack,” manager Alex Cora said. “We still want him to attack regardless of the score, but it was a good one for him.”
Bello said: “It helps everybody to relax a little bit more. My mentality was just to get out of innings quickly.”
The Red Sox are keeping their rotation in line Monday-Wednesday against the Twins, with Crochet, Gray, and Connelly Early taking the mound in that order.
“We’re all pitchers who are capable of going long into games,” Bello said. “Maybe these starts of going long into games will motivate us to keep going even further — seven, eight innings, maybe even more than that.”
Caleb Durbin isn’t merely an alumnus of Washington University in St. Louis, a Division 3 program about 15 minutes from Busch Stadium.
He is a bona fide super-fan.
Five years removed from his Bears days, Durbin didn’t play with anybody on the current team. But in a group chat of about 20 recent former players, he is among the most active members. When WashU is playing, and Durbin isn’t busy with his own baseball, he is locked in on the play-by-play log online (and mildly annoyed that the new streaming platform is tough to use). On Thursday, a Red Sox off day before playing the Cardinals, Durbin visited campus to talk to the current team and head coach Pat Bloom, with whom he is in touch at least monthly.
“Just because it’s D3 doesn’t take away from the pride and excitement I get from still following the team,” said Durbin, who led WashU to the Division 3 World Series in 2021, before the Braves drafted him. “We didn’t really care what level it was. We just wanted to be the best at that level and put a ton of work in … We were able to kind of have some cool moments making it to the World Series of my junior year. And we want to get back there.”
We, he says of this team.
“They’re doing really well, and they have their own memories to create,” Durbin said. “Just being there for them and knowing that I can be a resource whenever they need me.”
Does everybody follow their old college this closely?
“Not at all,” said Crochet, a Tennessee alum who worked out at rival Vanderbilt in the offseason.
Durbin completed his degree in economics online in 2022 as he started his journey in professional baseball.
“That’s something that was a priority for me: I did three years here, grinding on the academic side,” he said. “Being an alum of WashU, I definitely take a lot of pride in the success that they’re having. It’s a lot of fun to follow.”
Roman Anthony (0 for 5) was the DH again. He has started in left field in just two of the past 10 games. Cora’s reasoning: He wanted to stick with what worked Saturday, which included Jarren Duran playing left (and getting two hits). “Just throw him out there, don’t think about your swing,” Cora said. Duran added a double and a walk Sunday. As for Anthony? “I agree with you, he hasn’t had too many opportunities out there,” Cora said. “But whenever we put him out there, we feel like he’s going to make plays” … Patrick Sandoval will make his second minor league rehab start Tuesday, Cora said … New Bedford native Jared Shuster pitched the last three innings for the Cardinals, and would have escaped unscathed if not for Trevor Story’s two-out, two-run double in the ninth. Shuster, 27, made his Cardinals debut with two-thirds of a scoreless inning Saturday.
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.