Brayan Bello is getting another crack at the Orioles in Boston, a start that comes after Baltimore tagged him for eight runs and 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings on April 24. The Red Sox right-hander will try to turn that around with the season series still tight and the matchup carrying the feel of a game that could matter later.
That is why Bello is drawing attention today. He has a 5.63 ERA and a 1.643 WHIP in 11 games, including seven starts, and the numbers against Baltimore explain the concern: the Orioles hit five home runs off him in that April outing, and left-handed hitters have a.323 average against him this season after Bello held them to.232 last year. Gunnar Henderson is 7-for-22 with three doubles and two homers against Bello, giving Baltimore a hitter who has already done damage in this matchup.
The Orioles and Red Sox have split the first two games of the series, and Baltimore has its own momentum markers to protect. The Orioles are the only team in the majors that has not been shut out this season, they have gone 62 games without being blanked, and that streak is the franchise’s fourth-longest behind 2007, 1978 and 1996. They are also 7-2 in their last nine day games, which fits a club that has been harder to quiet than most opponents.
Bello’s second look at Baltimore matters because the same problem that showed up on April 24 has not gone away. The Orioles lineup again gives him a heavy dose of right-handed power and contact, while the left-handed bats he has struggled with this year remain a path for damage if they force him into trouble early. For the Red Sox, this start is less about the calendar than about whether Bello can make one bad outing against the Orioles look like a one-off instead of a warning.
The next answer will come from Bello himself, in real time, against the same club that beat him up less than two weeks ago. If he gets through this one cleanly, it changes the story around his season; if he does not, Baltimore will have shown it can keep finding the same crack.
