Brayan Bello allows seven runs as Red Sox drop series to Braves

Prior to Sunday s challenge Alex Cora offered an assessment of Brayan Bello s season that doubled as a challenge We need to be more aggressive in the strike zone Cora revealed pitches in five innings is not efficient All these guys tell you no I ve got pitches yeah it s over six Over five that means there s a lot of traffic and we have to be aggressive with the bullpen So we expect him to go out there and give us six or seven be aggressive with his stuff if he can do that he s going to be ok It s safe to say Sunday did not represent the step forward Cora was looking for Bello failed to get out of the fifth inning for the third consecutive start allowing seven runs on hits five walks and three strikeouts over innings in the Red Sox s eventual - loss to the Atlanta Braves He fell behind early gave up the lead after Rafael Devers came through with a go-ahead grand slam and then melted down altogether in the top of the fifth By day s end Bello s ERA had spiked from to and with the loss Boston is now - on the season and - since April Atlanta loaded the bases against Bello right out of the chute getting two singles and a walk to start the battle but Bello was able to limit the Braves to two runs on an RBI single by Drake Baldwin and a run-scoring groundout by Ozzie Albies The Braves stretched the lead to - in the third on a Matt Olson double and a Marcell Ozuna RBI single but in the bottom of the frame the Red Sox answered by loading the bases themselves and Rafael Devers came through with a towering grand slam to put Boston ahead It was the first grand slam by a Red Sox performer this season and the first since Luis Urias hit one against New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole on Aug That drought of days between grand slams was the club s longest since going days between slams between - and it was the club s seventh longest drought of the past century With the momentum on their side the Red Sox desperately needed a shutdown inning from Bello in the fourth The right-hander nearly delivered getting two quick groundouts but then allowed three straight singles including a game-tying knock by Austin Riley Then things went totally sideways in the fifth Bello once again loaded the bases with no outs and allowed another runner to total after walking Michael Harris II on four pitches He then allowed an RBI single to Eli White and a sacrifice fly to Nick Allen before Cora certainly came out and lifted the struggling starter for left-hander Sean Newcomb Newcomb proceeded to walk Alex Verdugo to load the bases again but Alex Bregman made a brilliant diving stop on a hard liner by Riley and combined with David Hamilton to turn a potentially game-saving inning-ending double play to keep it - Atlanta Hamilton turned another terrific double play later but the Braves eventually blew the battle open anyway with three runs in the eighth on an Olson sacrifice fly and a two-run shot by Ozuna Ozuna finished for with three RBI and Alex Verdugo and Riley each had three hits Outside of Devers for double grand slam the only Red Sox sportsman who did anything important at the plate was Hamilton who went for with a double and a stolen base Newcomb finished the battle for Boston allowing three runs on six hits two walks and four strikeouts over the last innings Though Sunday was Bello s worst outing of the season in terms of runs allowed a lot of his issues on display have been evident all year Entering the day Bello had allowed hits walks and two hit batsman in innings through his first five starts That s more than baserunners per inning and yet Bello also only had a ERA thanks in large part to the fact that opposing batters were for against him with runners in scoring position Bello s Fielding Independent Pitching mark of relative to his ERA was a glaring red flag and Sunday his good fortune ran out Things won t get any easier for the Red Sox either Monday the club welcomes the New York Mets one of the best teams in baseball for the start of a three-game series