Brayan Bello arrived at Fenway Park for his MLB debut to much fanfare.
It’s always a thrill when any team’s top prospects get the call, but for Boston Red Sox fans, in particular, truly promising homegrown arms – especially starting pitchers – are rarities. The championship teams of the last two decades were full of star pitching – Pedro Martinez, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, Josh Beckett, John Lackey, David Price, Chris Sale – but they got their starts elsewhere. Names such as Clay Buccholz and Jon Lester stand out years after their departures because they were the exception, not the rule.
Bello, who’s said he wants to be even better than his idol, Pedro, could be next; the crown jewel who anchors the Red Sox rotation for years to come.
But in his debut season, he’s done something that no other Sox rookie has in over six decades.
0 home runs allowed in his first 8 MLB starts! Brayan's the first Red Sox pitcher to do that since Earl Wilson over 60 years ago! https://t.co/pQdDDEr1aE
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 15, 2022
In some cases, singling out an individual metric from the full picture of a player’s stats is cherry-picking, but not allowing a single home run is impressive. Bello even faced Aaron Judge, who leads all hitters with 57 homers, this week and held him to a lone single.
This isn’t to say that Bello’s introduction to the big leagues has been smooth sailing. Since his July 6 debut, he’s allowed 24 earned runs over 42 1/3 innings. He’s struck out 42 batters, but also given up 41 hits and issued 21 walks.
But there have been signs of serious improvement. After allowing 16 earned runs on 26 hits over his first four games, he’s only allowed three earned runs on 12 hits across his three September starts. Two of his last three games have been shutouts of at least five innings.
For Sox fans, seeing Bello’s bright future begin to unfold has been one of the only bright spots of the season. He has a ways to go, but it’s thrilling to see him on his way.
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