BOSTON — At 24 years and not quite two months, Brayan Bello is something of a throwback.
Though he can gun his fastball to 95-96 mph, he doesn’t pile up swings and misses, and thus, is hardly typical of today’s starting pitchers who pile up strikeouts at a numbing pace.
In an era when teams celebrate when a starter manages to get into the fifth inning, Bello regularly goes far deeper into games.
And while other young starters typically suffer from less-than linear development, Bello has been remarkably reliable in his first full season. Over his last dozen starts, he’s yielded more than two earned runs exactly once.
Bello is, in other words, everything most young pitchers are not: adaptable, durable and consistent.
More than that, he’s everything the Red Sox currently need. While the team desperately assembles pitching plans out of a jigsaw puzzle with several key pieces missing, Bello merely takes the ball every five days or so and lugs the club deep into the late innings.
In Wednesday’s 4-2 victory over the Texas Rangers, Bello’s seven innings were even more impressive than usual. Thanks to some misplays in the infield and some grinding at-bats on the part of the Rangers, Bello was forced to throw 43 pitches in the first two innings.
Given the Red Sox’s need to cobble together two of every five turns through the rotation with a tag-team of relievers, that was less than optimal. The way Bello was laboring early, it appeared as though Boston would be fortunate to get five innings from him.
Bello, though, had other ideas. Since late last season, when he returned more fully-formed after another stint at Triple A, Bello has shown the ability to make adjustments on the fly. Knowing his team was hoping to limit the number of innings it got from relievers, Bello made some changes to his repertoire, with the goal of becoming more efficient with his pitch count.
“He gathers information,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He understands, him and (pitching coach Dave Bush and game plan coordinator Jason Varitek), they do a good job in between innings to go over what’s going on. Going into the battle, you have an idea what you want to do. But then the opposition, they react differently — sometimes more aggressive than others, sometimes more patient.
“But little by little, he gathers information and he goes out there and he applies it. He’s not afraid. We tell him, ‘Hey, you’re doing this, you’re doing that … be more aggressive with this pitch,’ and he goes and executes.”
In Cora’s estimation, Wednesday was not Grade-A Bello. The command was spotty at times, and his stuff wasn’t its usual self. It didn’t matter. Like a veteran with a decade of experience to draw upon, Bello used some grit and guile to power through 21 outs.
Bello was decidedly more aggressive after the second, dictating the at-bats against the Rangers and forcing them to swing early in the count. In the moment, it was a masterful transformation: after averaging almost 22 pitches over each of the first two innings, he faced the minimum number of hitters over the next three innings, needing just 34 pitches for the next nine outs.
“When he’s good,” said teammate Justin Turner, “he’s getting early contact and getting those at-bats finished in three pitches. That’s what allows him to get deep into games.”
The game marked the fifth straight start in which Bello pitched into the seventh and allowed two runs or fewer. For context, the last Red Sox pitcher to put a string like that together before turning 25 was Roger Clemens.
His teammates aren’t the only ones who are appreciative. Increasingly, Bello’s starts are becoming events at Fenway, with the crowd buzzing in anticipation. After he weathered the first two shaky innings, the crowd of 31.568 seemed to carry him forward, showering him with applause that seemed to build with each inning completed.
By the seventh, when his 107th and final pitch of the night resulted in a soft lineout to left by the dangerous Marcus Semien, Fenway offered him a rapturous bit of gratitude that was temporarily paused for his sticky-stuff exit exam from the umpires, then resumed for the final steps to the dugout.
“Of course you feed off that energy,” said Bello through a translator. “Being able to pitch here is an amazing experience and to be able to give them a good show, that’s something I really enjoy.”
Increasingly, the feeling is mutual.
Entertainment value aside, his manager was grateful that he could limit his bullpen exposure to just six outs.
“That’s a really good lineup,” concluded Cora of the Rangers. “They lead the American League in runs, I believe. They slug and they have some good hitters. But he did an amazing job.”
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