BOSTON — Chaim Bloom insisted this week that how the Red Sox perform leading up to Aug. 2 would only go so far into determining his approach at the trade deadline. The standings matter, but they weren’t everything to the chief baseball officer’s plans.
But if the Red Sox are trying to convince the front office to invest in them in these games, they’re having a hard time doing so. It’s even harder with a depleted roster.
A night after Xander Bogaerts’ heroics led them to victory, the Red Sox couldn’t recapture the magic and continue the momentum. Solid pitching performances from Austin Davis and Brayan Bello weren’t enough, as the Red Sox’ bats — as they’ve tended to do recently — went silent again in a 4-1 loss to the Brewers, their 18th loss of July, on Friday night at Fenway Park.
The loss dropped the Red Sox — still in the basement of the American League East — back below .500 as the clock creeps toward 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners — one of the Red Sox’ top competitors for a wild-card spot — got better on Friday night as they traded for Reds starter Luis Castillo, one of the top pitchers on the market, per reports.
Bello had by far his best outing as a major leaguer — and in a different role — even if it ended in some disappointment.
The rookie was originally scheduled to start on Friday, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora made the decision to use lefty reliever Austin Davis as an opener to match up the Brewers’ lineup, with Bello piggybacking him out of the bullpen. Davis pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings before handing it over to Bello, who continued to show some flashes of brilliance.
Bello hit the first batter he faced, No. 9 hitter Tyrone Taylor, but responded by striking out 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich with a nasty change-up. The hard-throwing rookie was also effective with his sinker and two-seam fastball, the latter of which peaked at 98.4 mph as he generated four strikeouts.
Bello ran into some trouble in the fifth with back-to-back one-out walks, but responded by inducing Taylor into a double play. In the sixth, however, a theme that’s followed him throughout his young big league career continued. While he’s a frequent inducer of ground balls, some unlucky balls have haunted him. It continued as Yelich hit a grounder down the left-field line for a double, before two more infield grounders yielded the first run and a 1-0 Brewers lead.
Bello limited the damage and the Red Sox struck right back as they finally created a rally against Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff when back-to-back doubles by Christian Vazquez and Alex Verdugo tied the game. But they gave the lead back up again.
After a leadoff single by Victor Caritini, Bello induced another double play, but the rookie couldn’t complete the seventh. Taylor smoked a 1-1 sinker to the triangle in right-center that a speedy and sliding Jarren Duran couldn’t catch up to that went for a triple. That ended Bello’s night as Cora went to Ryan Brasier. But the right-hander’s first pitch to Yelich was hit to left field for a go-ahead RBI single.
The Red Sox had a golden opportunity to rally after that, but frustratingly came up short. Franchy Cordero hit a one-out double that beat the shift to left before Bobby Dalbec drew a walk against Woodruff, ending the righty’s night after nine strikeouts and 19 swings and misses.
But the bottom of the lineup couldn’t come through facing Brad Boxberger. Jackie Bradley Jr., facing his former team, worked a 3-1 count before he swung and missed at ball four twice — both on change-ups out of the zone. Yolmer Sanchez followed with a soft fly out to shortstop.
The Red Sox created another rally in the eighth, putting runners on second and third with one out for their heavy hitters in Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez. But Bogaerts struck out and Martinez hit a soft groundout as he extended his hitless stretch to 0 for 20 since July 15.
The Brewers tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth and the Red Sox couldn’t rally as Jaylin Davis and Sanchez struck out to end the game.
