BOSTON — The weirdest start of Brayan Bello’s career coincided with an absolute explosion from the Red Sox — and that was good enough for Boston to start off its final homestand of the first half with an easy win over the A’s.
Bello set a career-high with 11 strikeouts and the bats behind him set a season-high with eight runs in a single inning (the second) as Boston jumped out to a massive early lead and beat Oakland, 12-9. The Red Sox have now won seven of eight games and are 10 games over .500 at 50-40.
Bello’s bizarre outing was bookended by troubling innings and included some wacky history in the middle. He gave up two runs in the first and three in the sixth (his last frame) but recorded his first 10 outs, around hits and runs, via strikeout. By doing that, he became the only Red Sox pitcher in at least the Expansion Era (since 1961) to do so. In total, he was tagged for five earned runs on nine hits in 5 ⅓ innings.
As has often been the case this season, things didn’t start off well for Bello. Oakland took a quick lead when Brent Rooker (RBI double) and Shea Langeliers (RBI single) tagged Bello for hits, but quickly surrendered it when the Sox took launch against righty Joey Estes in the bottom of the first. Jarren Duran (double), David Hamilton (RBI single), Tyler O’Neill (double) and Rafael Devers (2-run single) put together four straight hits to claim a 3-2 lead before Estes recorded an out.
The first-inning ambush was nothing compared to what would greet Estes in the second. A leadoff walk to Dom Smith set things up for Ceddanne Rafaela to make it 4-2 with an RBI triple the other way. He’d score Boston’s fifth run on a Duran sacrifice fly. Two batters later, Devers doubled in a run for his third RBI, making it 6-2. Back-to-back singles from Connor Wong and Masataka Yoshida put Boston ahead five. And after Estes was lifted for reliever Tyler Ferguson, Wilyer Abreu delivered the crushing blow with a three-run homer to deep right. Smith followed with a shot to go back-to-back and make it 11-2.
In total, eight of 11 Sox batters reached in the second, which was the club’s first eight-run inning of 2024. Estes, coming off a complete game shutout of the Angles on July 3, was tagged with eight earned runs on seven hits while recording just five outs. Ferguson allowed three runs of his own.
With a big lead, Bello worked around traffic in the second and fourth while continuing his strikeout parade and getting to his career high by punching out JJ Bleday to end the fourth. At 90 pitches, he went out for the sixth inning and was greeted with loud contact as Langeliers doubled and Zack Gelof singled before Lawrence Butler crushed a three-run homer to right. That was about it for Bello, who was seen angrily bemoaning his outing in the dugout. His ERA rose to 5.40 as he threw 105 pitches, his most since May 17.
Oakland made it a five-run game on a Gelof sacrifice fly in the seventh. Abreu answered with a sac fly of his own in the bottom of the eighth, stretching the lead back to 11-6. Newcomer Trey Wingenter’s Sox debut didn’t go as planned, as he allowed a three-run homer to Gelof that made it 12-9 in the ninth. But that’s as close as the A’s would get.
All nine members of Boston’s lineup had hits, with Hamilton, Devers, Yoshida and Rafaela leading the way with two apiece. Abreu’s four RBIs tied a career-high, matching his output from the third game of his career on Aug. 24 of last year. In fact, all nine members of the lineup had hits and scored runs in the first two innings — the first time that has happened for the Red Sox since 2003.
Pivetta goes Wednesday
The Red Sox will look to clinch a series win behind righty Nick Pivetta (4-5, 4.06 ERA), who will look to stay rolling after flirting with a no-hitter last time out in Miami on the Fourth of July. The A’s will start lefty JP Sears (5-7, 4.74 ERA) with first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. ET.
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