SAN DIEGO — Red Sox starter Brayan Bello’s changeup was considered his best secondary pitch as he advanced through the minor league system.
It was his second most used pitch during his first full season in the big leagues in 2023 behind only his sinker. Opponents batted just .196 with a .291 slugging percentage against it.
But he hasn’t had quite the same feel for it this year and it has been his fourth-most-used pitch.
It looked sharp though in a 6-2 loss to the Padres at Petco Park on Sunday.
“I thought his changeup might have been the best changeup I’ve seen him have,” third baseman Alex Bregman said.
The numbers all suggest he had his best changeup this season. Six of his 13 swings and misses came on the changeup. But despite generating whiffs on all six swings the Padres took against it, it was his least-used pitch at 12%.
“We also used it against righties and was very effective against righties,” Bello said through translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. “So hopefully the usage will go up. Probably the same as the cutter and slider. So we’ll see.”
Opponents batted just .177 against his changeup last year when his slider and changeup usage were almost identical.
It is a pitch he always has used more against left-handed hitters than righties. He threw 1,356 changeups combined in 2023 and ‘24. Nine-hundred and twenty-eight (68%) were thrown to left-handed hitters.
He entered Sunday throwing just 12.6% of his 278 changeups this year to right-handed hitters, down from 32% to right-handed hitters the previous two seasons.
Manager Alex Cora doesn’t necessarily think Bello needs to throw the changeup more.
“Not really,” Cora said. “I think keep being versatile. I mean, he’s really good at what he’s doing right now, using all his pitches. And I bet when there’s a lot of lefties in the lineup, we’ll use the changeup. When not, we use the sinker and the cutter and the four-seamer.”
The Padres have five right-handed hitters and four left-handed hitters in their lineup Sunday.
“I felt good with it,” Bello said. “I feel like the spin was good. The location was great. So I felt very good with it today.”
He tossed 5 ⅔ innings, allowing five runs, six hits and three walks while striking out seven. It wasn’t his best start obviously. But Cora thought Bello pitched “a lot better than the line,” pointing to a pair of bloop hits.
Bregman gave a full scouting report beyond Bello’s changeup.
“He’s not trying to punch everybody out,” Bregman said. “I think he was a little bit early in the year trying to do that, but I think just the maturity has been on full display. He’s executing pitches (to) both sides of the plate. I think the cutter, the sinker’s getting in there. Slider’s been good. He’s been using the four-seam up against the lefties, which has been great for him.
“Overall, I think (he’s) a dude that is going to go out there and compete,” Bregman added. “When he takes the mound, we believe we have a really good chance to win.”
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