So the starter-turned-reliever might actually be a starter again.
Brayan Bello threw eight impressive innings in just his second start since being called back up from Worcester in July. Bello allowed only one earned run on five hits while striking out 11 Rays, with his only mistake ending up in the left-field stands when Jonathan Aranda ambushed the first pitch of the fourth inning for an opposite field leadoff homer.
Bello was economical all game long, throwing only 93 pitches over his eight strong innings while allowing multiple baserunners in only two innings all afternoon.
With the recent decline of Jake Bennett and the obvious shortcomings of Patrick Sandoval, the rise of Bello is a much-needed shot of adrenaline for the Boston pitching staff.
While they will need only three starters at most for the Wild Card Round, a confident and effective Bello could be a tremendous asset out of the pen for Chad Tracy, especially as someone who can throw multiple innings from the right side with two of the three likely starters being left-handed.
From the offensive side, the only players of note were Roman Anthony, who had a clutch two-out, run-scoring double, Jarren Duran, who had two hits, and Caleb Durbin, who had two doubles but one not-so-intelligent stolen-base attempt.
In all, the Sox did collect eight hits, but five of them came from those three players. As a team, they struck out nine times and walked only twice. They also continued to struggle with men in scoring position, going 1-for-11 on the day, with Anthony’s double being the only successful at-bat.
In the ninth inning, another one of those guys Chad Tracy is going to have to rely on out of the pen let the team down again.
With the score tied at 1-1, Garrett Whitlock allowed a leadoff single to Junior Caminero and then, after recording the first out of the inning on a popup, surrendered another single to Chandler Simpson to put men on first and second.
Whitlock was able to strike out Victor Mesa Jr. for the second out of the inning, but not before Connor Wong’s defensive woes from the previous game crept up to bite them in the rear end again. A passed ball off Wong’s glove advanced the runners to second and third, and then a little bloop to right that landed just in front of Abreu marked the unfortunate end to a fantastic start by Bello.
Richie Palacios’s game-winner traveled all of 223 feet with a 65 MPH exit velocity, which somehow makes the ending even more irritating.
Controlled Aggression
When the Sox were playing their best baseball, they were running the bases aggressively, yet intelligently. When they were at their worst early in the season, they were aggressive then as well, but they were recklessly aggressive.
They tried to take extra bases needlessly, and those attempts usually ended up on blooper reels because of the stupidity that tended to ensue.
On Saturday afternoon, the poster boy for Controlled Aggression for the Red Sox slipped into that realm of stupidity when he tried to steal third in the ninth inning.
After legging out a double down the left-field line with one out in the ninth, Caleb Durbin found himself already in scoring position with the left-handed Jarren Duran at the plate.
On the mound was Bryan Baker, who has a 95-plus MPH fastball and, as a right-handed pitcher, doesn’t turn his back to the runner at second base at any time. With the count 2-1, Durbin thought he could get a jump off Baker and took off for third.
Unfortunately for him, the pitch was a 95 MPH heater just below the zone that Duran didn’t even offer at, and with him being a left-handed hitter, the throwing lane was wide open.
The throw beat Durbin by feet, and he was tagged out for the second out of the inning.
Of course, Duran laced a triple to center field on the very next pitch, but he was left stranded thanks to an excellent defensive play by Junior Caminero against IKF.
Controlled aggression is great.
Uncontrolled aggression gets you thrown out at third with one out in a tie game.
Playoff Atmosphere
One of the biggest knocks on how the Red Sox have approached September is that they are mailing it in and playing uninspired baseball down the stretch instead of preparing themselves for the playoffs.
Overall, I would say that argument is sound, and Boston has clearly been approaching most of the games this month with one hand tied behind its back.
That being said, these two games against the division-leading Rays have had a very distinct playoff feel to them, even if the Red Sox still have not employed their full roster.
The Rays’ pitching is very good, and their lineup has been present in full for both games, yet the Red Sox pitching has, for the most part, held it in check.
That is a very good sign for the playoffs, especially when you consider that Chad Tracy has thrown his number three and maybe his number four or five guy, depending on your level of trust in Jake Bennett, against Tampa. He has also yet to unleash the full power of his bullpen, using Miller, Whitlock, and Chapman in the spots in which they are most accustomed to pitching.
On the other hand, the offense has looked less than intimidating against the Rays’ pitching staff, and if you remove Roman Anthony, they would have scored only one run in the entire series.
So yes, there is work to be done around the batting cage over the next seven games.
The training staff has to put in some overtime to get Willson Contreras and Ceddanne Rafaela put back together again and back up on that wall because Lord knows they are going to need their offensive potential against the arms the Yankees are going to throw at them in a week and a half.
But remember, Craig Breslow and the talking heads in the front office said over the winter that the backbone of this club was going to be the pitching.
Given how that group has looked coming down the stretch, I sure hope they remember that they need to lift with their legs and not bend at the waist, because the load they are going to have to carry in October could be heavier than Sisyphus’s boulder.