On a night when Rafael Devers blasted the longest home run of his career and pulled within single digits of his 1,000th career hit, the story of the Red Sox should’ve been just that: their talented young slugger doing what he does best.
Instead, the story of Tuesday night’s game was this:
A struggling Brayan Bello made the shortest start of his career, three players made an error, and the Blue Jays snapped a seven-game losing streak by scoring seven runs in an inning and beating the Red Sox 9-4.
Early on, it had the makings of a beautiful summer night at Fenway Park. Almost exactly three hours after Alex Cora said, “It feels like he’s about to take off,” Devers did just that, homering to put the Red Sox on the board early for the second consecutive game. Torched 467 feet deep to right-center at 111.2 mph, it’s the farthest “Raffy Bomb” of the slugger’s entire career.
“That is havoc right there,” a mic’d-up Tanner Houck raved to the broadcast in real time.
The Red Sox scored another run when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. couldn’t nab Tyler O’Neill’s pop-up to shallow right – originally ruled a triple, later changed to an error on Guerrero – and Masataka Yoshida doubled to drive him in, increasing Boston’s lead to 2-0.
Almost immediately, however, the Red Sox were dealing with a far less enjoyable brand of havoc: After two 1-2-3 innings, Bello couldn’t make it out of the third. 10 Blue Jays batters came to the plate, and by the time a pitching change was announced, Boston’s 2-0 lead had become a 7-2 Toronto takeover.
The Red Sox starter opened the top of the third by giving up a double to Danny Jansen and a single to Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Kevin Kiermaier’s hit deflected off Enmanuel Valdez’s glove and into right field, getting the Blue Jays on the board. Abreu threw wildly to third, the ball soaring far and high above Devers. The rookie outfielder was charged with an error, the tying run scored, and after a brief meeting of the umpires, Kiermaier stood on third with no outs.
When Bello followed with a walk to leadoff man Bo Bichette, Andrew Bailey paid him a visit on the mound. Bello then proceeded to walk Spencer Horwitz to load the bases – still without an out – for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The slugger would’ve had a homer in 21 other ballparks, but at Fenway, he had a double, which clanked around the centerfield triangle long enough to score two. Justin Turner’s groundout plated another run, and George Springer’s home run to the Boston bullpen made it seven.
Finally, Cora called for Greg Weissert, who came in and got the remaining two outs. All told, Bello lasted 2.1 innings, the shortest start of his career. He allowed a season-high seven earned runs – the most the Red Sox have allowed in a single inning since April 13, 2023 – on five hits, walked three, and struck out two. He threw 52 pitches, 29 for strikes. His changeup was flat, and the Blue Jays hit it hard.
“I obviously didn’t want to come out of the game. I wanted to compete, I was kind of surprised when they took me out,” Bello said (via translator Daveson Perez). “But hopefully, moving forward I don’t have a terrible outing like the one I just had.”
Tuesday was the latest in a concerning line of high-traffic performances by the young right-hander, who hasn’t been the same since returning from the injured list on May 12. Bello went at least five innings and issued two walks or fewer in each of his first five starts of the season, and allowed no more than two earned runs in four of them. In nine starts since the IL, however, he’s failed to complete five innings four times, and allowed at least two earned runs in each game, and at least three in seven of them.
“Honestly no,” Cora answered when asked if he could pinpoint the reason for Bello’s control issues.
“My mindset is good, mechanics are good. I can’t – I don’t really know what’s going on right now,” Bello said. “But I do know that I’m working with (Andrew Bailey) about attacking the zone, doing what I’m supposed to do. And there’s still a lot of season left for me. I know it hasn’t been great to this point, but I know what I’m capable of and I know what I can do.”
Lately, the Red Sox have been the comeback kids. In their first 65 games, they never won when trailing after seven innings, but entering Tuesday, they’d completed four such comebacks in their last 14 contests, including Monday night. Unfortunately, the largest deficit they’ve overcome this season is four runs; they were already down five when Josh Winckowski took over in the fourth and gave up another two (both earned).
Gausman’s start was eerily similar to his previous start, against the Red Sox in Toronto; after allowing five runs, four earned, on six hits, walking three, striking out four, and giving up two homers in 5.2 innings on June 19, he went six innings on Tuesday night. He gave up four runs (three earned) on five hits, including two home runs, issued one walk, and struck out five.
In the Blue Jays starter’s final inning, it seemed like the Red Sox might recreate Monday night’s comeback magic. Devers led off with a 426-foot double to the yellow 420-marker, the deepest part of center field. It might have clanged off the railing and into the stands above the Boston bullpen for his second homer of the night, but the fan seated at the end of the row reached out and made contact, and the ball deflected back onto the warning track.
Thus, Devers stood on second with a fan-interference two-bagger. Gausman wouldn’t be so lucky with O’Neill, who clobbered a first-pitch sinker to 448 feet to the left corner of the Green Monster seats for a two-run homer, his 16th of the year. It would be the last of Boston’s five hits.
Winckowski settled in after the fourth and held the Blue Jays scoreless for the remainder of the game, giving his teammates ample time to chip away. By the top of the ninth, it became a career night for him, too: his seventh strikeout – Guerrero swinging – set a new personal best.
“We gotta throw more strikes, that’s the most important thing,” Cora said of Bello. “Regardless of the results, we have to be more aggressive in the zone. He was 3-1 to Vladdy, right? So I think that summarizes his outing, we gotta throw more strikes.”
“Winck was the opposite,” Cora continued. “He pounded the strike zone the whole night, and he gave us, he saved us today.”
The bottom of the ninth was a mirror image of the night before. Again, Jarren Duran was the last batter of the contest. But this time, there would be no glorious walk-off; the leadoff man struck out swinging for the club’s fourth 1-2-3 inning, the end of his 14-game hitting streak, and the loss.
It wasn’t the only streak to die on Tuesday night. Tied after two games, this will be the first Red Sox-Blue Jays series not to end in a sweep after eight consecutive sweeps since 2022.
