Red Sox
Bello pitched seven scoreless innings in the Red Sox’ win over the Yankees on Friday.
After a few years in the majors, Brayan Bello is fulfilling his promise as a top-of-the-rotation starter for the Red Sox. In fact, he might be pitching better than that.
Bello pitched seven scoreless innings in the Red Sox’ 1-0 win over the Yankees on Friday. He allowed just three hits and one walk, striking the Yankees out five times as he didn’t allow a runner to get into scoring position all night.
With the win, Bello improved to 10-6 on the season. His ERA also improved to 3.07 on the year, giving him the eighth-best mark in the American League.
As outings like Friday’s have slowly become the norm for Bello as of late, Red Sox manager Alex Cora dished out some high praise for the 26-year-old righty.
“He started behind. He wasn’t ready in spring training, was able to build up a little bit. Threw the ball OK, but he wasn’t efficient,” Cora told reporters. “He got better. Now, every five days, it feels like [Garrett] Crochet. It’s Brayan’s night and we’re gonna be OK.”
Of course, Crochet has had a better season than Bello as the lefty has arguably been one of the three best pitchers in baseball this year. But there are some areas where Bello has been better than the Red Sox’ ace as of late. So, let’s take a look at some stats that show just how well Bello has been over his hot stre
2.75: Bello has recorded a 2.75 ERA since June 1, which is the 10th-best mark in all of baseball.
12: As Bello hasn’t given up many runs recently, he’s also been a reliable arm for the Red Sox in terms of workload. Combine the two and Bello has posted 12 quality starts (at least six innings pitched, allowing three or fewer earned runs) since the start of June.
2: Adding to that last point, Bello has pitched at least six innings or more in all but two of his last 14 starts. In the four starts prior to this stretch, Bello pitched fewer than five innings in each outing.
95: Continuing to add to the point of the number of innings Bello has thrown, he’s been on the bump for 95 innings since June 1. That’s also the second-best mark in baseball in that span as he only trails Phillies ace Christopher Sanchez in that and quality starts.
15: Unlike Red Sox Garrett Crochet, Bello hasn’t overpowered opposing hitters by getting them to strikeout. He’s posted just a 6.92 strikeouts per nine innings pitched rate since June 1. However, his 47.8 percent groundball percentage has been the 15th-best mark in baseball since the start of June.
4: Another stat that indicates how well Bello has been at inducing soft contact is barrel percentage. Opposing hitters have recorded a 5.4 barrel percentage off Bello since June 1, giving the Red Sox pitcher the fourth-best mark in baseball during that span. Bello also has the 16th-best hard hit percentage against (37.3) since the start of June.
51: Friday marked the second time this season that Bello pitched seven innings of scoreless ball at Yankee Stadium. That made him the first Red Sox pitcher to do that since Luis Tiant did so 51 years ago in 1974 (via J.P. Long).
1.95: This is a career stat, but Bello has felt right at home when he’s pitched at Yankee Stadium. His 1.95 career ERA in The Bronx is the best mark of any pitcher in the Live Ball era (min. 10 starts, via J.P. Long).
3: Bello’s ERA against teams with winning records has also been respectable as of late. He’s posted a 3.00 ERA against teams with winning records since June 1.
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
