Red Sox outlast Mariners 8-3 in Brayan Bello’s season debut

It took three hours and minutes but the Red Sox emerged victorious over the visiting Seattle Mariners - on Tuesday night Brayan Bello didn t exactly dominate in his season debut but backed by an effective Red Sox defense he made it through five innings with only one run on the board It was the band s seventh consecutive start of at least five innings and no more than two runs allowed The Red Sox right-hander went five innings and allowed one earned run on four hits making Tuesday the best season debut of his career He issued three walks hit two batters and struck out three Postgame manager Alex Cora explained that the injury delay during Bello s outing was due to cramping in his calf but revealed right now feels like there s nothing serious there He did a good job Cora noted of his starter Triston made a great play in the first inning and Bello literally finished the play We turned that double play kind of like he was able to breathe The Mariners loaded the bases in the first and had Rowdy Tellez who s homered times against the Red Sox in his career at the plate Triston Casas ignited a double play which Bello completed to end the inning It has to be hard right Being on the IL you come back and that s a pretty good baseball squad over there Cora empathized Polanco hits one out right away and a lot of things going on He got the ground ball against Rowdy who s been a killer for us right And then he made pitches The changeup was good the slider was better I believe from where I was he was able to use the four-seamer to keep him honest And for his first one that was solid for us Save for the fourth Bello had at least one baserunner in every inning but the Mariners couldn t make anything happen they went for with runners in scoring position and left six men on base during his outing The match dragged through the early innings as the Red Sox and Mariners offenses played tug-of-war Jorge Polanco homered for a - lead in the top of the first and Jarren Duran tripled and scored the tying run on a Rafael Devers sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning Seattle went - - atop the fourth Boston followed suit in their half of the frame After the Red Sox put up two runs in the bottom of the fifth the Mariners plated a pair in the top of the sixth The Red Sox collected hits including multi-hit performances by Duran Alex Bregman Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela and seven walks Abreu led the way with three hits a walk run and stolen base Rafaela swiped two bags and scored twice and Bregman doubled twice and drove in three RBI Devers new nickname should be The Walkman The Red Sox designated hitter entered the contest leading the American League in walks then added two to his season total It s the th time in franchise history that a Red Sox competitor has begun the season with at least walks in his first games with the exception of arrangement deadline addition Kyle Schwarber Devers is the first Sox player to do so since Kevin Youkilis in Yet at times it was a frustrating night on the bases for Boston The Sox struck out nine times and went for with runners in scoring position leaving men on base The group is grinding Cora stated We re getting on base we re taking more walks lately than that two-week stretch It s a constant reminder you don t have to hit homers or get hits all the time to contribute you know you can do it in other solutions and walking is one of them We got that pitch count up we got to the bullpen and now we re set for the rest of the series The Slammin Famine persists as well The Red Sox who are without a grand slam since Aug loaded the bases against old friend Eduard Bazardo - Red Sox in the sixth but Bregman flew out to left to end the inning It was their th grand-slam opportunity of the season in the American League only the Mariners and Astros have had more The Red Sox made up for their slam-less sixth by scoring four in the seventh Triston Casas blasted a Trent Thornton curveball mph to deep center for a three-run homer and Duran s single turned into a chaotic run-scoring opportunity when Mariners second baseman Leo Rivas made a throwing error allowing Carlos Narvaez to sum and Duran to advance to second That was a good swing Cora mentioned of Casas blast Hopefully this is the beginning of something good We need him the manager continued We need him to hit the ball hard and that s the majority critical thing We know he can control the strike zone the walk before right That was a good sign but we need him to hit the ball hard It s not pitch selection because he s disciplined He s not walking as much it feels like he s not hitting the ball as hard as he can Cora explained We like him to get on base but we like him to drive the ball and that was an outstanding swing Hours after the Red Sox optioned Zack Kelly to Triple-A to open a roster spot for Bello Justin Wilson turned in a similar outing to the one that put Kelly on the chopping block Taking the mound in the sixth he issued back-to-back one-out walks and after getting the second out gave up a two-run single to No hitter JP Crawford to cut Boston s lead to one Garrett Whitlock and Liam Hendriks pitched the final three frames The latter in his second appearance since June closed out the contest with a triumphant - - ninth The Red Sox are - in April tied with the Detroit Tigers for the best record in the AL and have won six of their last seven games