Tyler Samaniego allowed four first-inning runs and the Boston Red Sox fell 4-3 to the Cleveland Guardians on Friday, even as Brayan Bello locked in over the next seven innings with five strikeouts and no walks. The result leaves Boston weighing what comes next
The first inning felt like the kind of problem Boston couldn’t afford to repeat.
Tyler Samaniego opened for the Red Sox and allowed all four of Cleveland’s runs in the first frame. Boston still stayed alive—thanks largely to what Brayan Bello did afterward—but it wasn’t enough. The Red Sox dropped a 4-3 decision to the Cleveland Guardians on Friday.
Once Bello took over, the mood shifted quickly. In the next seven innings, he didn’t allow a single run or walk and struck out five. It was the latest example of why Boston has leaned on him in the bulk role—he has pitched the bulk role in four of his last five scheduled outings.
“I just feel really comfortable. really comfortable with throwing every single one of my pitches for strikes in whatever count. ” Bello said via a translator postgame. “I think that’s the most important thing for a pitcher. is to be comfortable on the mound and just to overall be comfortable throwing whatever pitch.”.
But that comfort only deepens the dilemma around him.
Bello is 27 years old. and the Red Sox decided to put an opener in front of him at the start of May because he’d been so bad as a normal starting pitcher. In 30.2 innings as a starter this season. Bello owns a 9.68 ERA with a .370 opponent batting average. 18 strikeouts and 18 walks each. and 10 home runs.
In his new role, the numbers point the other direction. Across 25.1 innings in bulk relief, Bello has a 0.71 ERA with 22 strikeouts and just three walks.
Interim manager Chad Tracy said after the game it’s impossible to fully make sense of how Bello’s season has swung so sharply between roles. “I don’t know that you can make sense of it,” Tracy said. “The most important thing for me right now is that [Bello] looked great. Also. not only looked great. but had a swagger about him on the mound that we’ve seen in the past. I’m just mostly very pleased to see how he threw the ball.”.
The first step in the plan—Bello coming behind an opener—has been inconsistent in practice.
Jovani Moran was the opener in Bello’s first three bulk appearances. In those outings, he allowed five earned runs, which helped set up Samaniego Friday. The Red Sox had wanted this approach to finally click. Instead, Tracy acknowledged how difficult managing the sequence has become.
“It’s hard. It’s hard to figure that out,” Tracy said. “You can’t ignore the fact that Bello’s been very successful in it (as a bulk guy). Ultimately, having him be that way – in the starter role – would be awesome. “We’re still trying, you know. We had some of those where we haven’t gotten off to the best start. and then he comes in trailing.”.
Bello, for his part, said he wants to be positioned to return to being a starter full-time. “I’m in a mode where I wanna prove that I can start and that I can go my five. six innings plus. ” he said. “And what better way to do that than in the role that was given to me: making the most of it and putting up zeroes.”.
The problem is that the opener—whoever it is—can’t keep falling apart. because it forces other choices onto an already strained staff. The opener situation on Bello days is not a long-term solution. The opener continues to flail, and it creates a short-handed bullpen. The lack of even one arm in the pen by way of a first-inning start doesn’t help with Garrett Whitlock being on the injured list.
It’s also a limit on Bello’s own future. As Tracy’s comments and the broader setup suggest. the organization has to make a decision about Bello that benefits the team’s entire pitching arsenal and the pitcher at the center of it. If this stays confined to bulk relief, it won’t be a sustainable answer. Bello can’t pitch in bulk relief for the rest of his career.
On the field, Boston did claw its way back—but not far enough.
The Red Sox were down 4-0 until the fifth inning, when their offense finally found a rhythm. Marcelo Mayer, Caleb Durbin, and Jarren Duran each drove in a run in consecutive at-bats to bring Boston within one. After that, the bats went silent. The game ended 4-3 as Boston left seven runners on base and went 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
The loss dropped Boston to 10 games under .500 at 23-33 for the first time since 2020. It also stretched a rough stretch: the Red Sox have lost six of their last seven games, remain in last place in the American League East, and are five games back of the third wild-card spot.
Brayan Bello Boston Red Sox Cleveland Guardians Tyler Samaniego Chad Tracy opener bulk relief Garrett Whitlock American League East wild-card race