In the fifth inning of Brayan Bello's 2026 debut, the Boston Red Sox fell apart around him. In typical Red Sox fashion, they made two errors on one play, and all hell broke loose.
After Houston Astros outfielder Cam Smith swung and missed for the second time in his fifth-frame at-bat, Connor Wong hucked the ball at Marcelo Mayer in attempt to catch a runner stealing. Mayer correctly blocked the bounced-throw with his body, and as the ball skittered to his left, the runner at third base took off.
Mayer threw the ball to Wong at home, but it clanged off Bello's outstretched glove and the runner scored easily. Bello then returned to the mound to continue his battle with Smith, and he swung and missed at the third pitch he saw. But home plate umpire Mark Wegner raised three fingers to signify a 1-2 count.
It's bad enough that Wegner lost track of the count, but no Red Sox protested — Bello, Wong and even Alex Cora said nothing after what should've been Bello's third strikeout of the night, an unacceptable turn of events by all parties. Smith ended up walking and another run scored before Bello's night concluded unceremoniously after 4.2 innings of work.
Brayan Bello robbed of strikeout due to unacceptable umpiring mistake in his 2026 Red Sox debut
Bello allowed five runs on eight hits with three walks and two strikeouts (which should have been two walks and three strikeouts, if not for Wegner's gaffe) in his first major league start of the year. His line is rather disappointing after a promising spring training and World Baseball Classic performance, but the righty got into trouble often and struggled to get out of it.
Still, there's a silver lining to his performance that also showed through in his later spring training appearances. Bello generated 18 whiffs against Houston and had particularly great success with his cutter (introduced last season), which garnered a 63.3% whiff rate. Somehow, the Astros still batted .667 against it, but he's well on his way to missing more bats.
Bello's main problem against the Astros seemed to be failed execution, which is fixable. The Red Sox have looked utterly dejected since their first loss of the season against the Cincinnati Reds, and Bello's emotions have shown to be a huge factor in his game. When he has a less anemic team around him, Bello could find himself again. He made 29 and 30 starts in 2024 and '25, respectively, to the tune of a 3.91 ERA over those seasons — Bello has shown he can be reliable and his improved whiff rates should turn into improved performance as he ramps up this season.