The Boston Red Sox have offered MLB’s most productive starting rotation all season long. That’s been subject to a few tough outings in recent weeks.
The Cardinals inflicted that against Boston starter Brayan Bello, tabbing him with three homers allowed in a 10-6 loss for the Red Sox.
Bello failed to get through five innings in his second start since returning from the injured list. Most of Bello’s troubles on Friday came from missed spots with his sinker and the inability to miss bats with his changeup, the combination he consistently relies on dating back to the start of his career with the Red Sox.
“The changeup wasn’t good today,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It was tough for him to get some swings-and-misses. It felt like the slider was better than the changeup. He grinded through it. If you look at the outing, the damage was done on the changeup. He felt like he never had the feel for it tonight.”
“It was a bad outing,” Bello told reporters through translator Carlos Villoria, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “The team did everything possible to score runs and gave me some run support. I wasn’t able to make the adjustment tonight. It was a bad outing.”
The Cardinals scored their highest run total of the season in an uncommon outing for the Red Sox given the standard of the starting rotation for the majority of the season.
Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Cardinals game:
— Rafael Devers hit his 179th career home run on Friday. That pushes him alone in 12th place in Red Sox history, according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long
— David Hamilton tallied the first triple of his MLB career.
— Tyler O’Neill returned to St. Louis with the Red Sox after spending the first six seasons of his career with the Cardinals.
— Boston allowed 10 runs in a game for the first time this season, as Tom Caron referenced on NESN’s postgame coverage.
— Boston fell below .500 for the first time since the opening series of the season in Seattle.
— Brayan Bello allowed three home runs for just the second time in his MLB career.
— The Red Sox and Cardinals continue the three-game series on Saturday night. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
