Brayan Bello gave up 3 homers in rare bad start as Red Sox lose

Red Sox

“He’ll be ready for the next one.”

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Brayan Bello hasn’t had a lot of tough outings over the last few weeks.

Entering Wednesday’s game, the young Red Sox right-hander had put together seven straight solid starts dating back to early June, amassing a 2.51 ERA over 46.2 innings while opponents batted .213.

On Wednesday, however, Bello gave up three two-run homers for the first time in his MLB career — one each to J.J. Bleday, Cody Thomas and Jace Peterson. The last one, Peterson’s 393-foot drive, came in the fourth inning, and the A’s never scored again.

The damage was done, though. The Red Sox rallied back to within a run, but they couldn’t get over the hump down the stretch and dropped the series to the lowly A’s with a 6-5 loss.

Bello’s teammates weren’t concerned by his struggles.

“He’s been fantastic for us,” Justin Turner told reporters. “Pounding the zone, using all his pitches and unfortunately today, made a couple of mistakes and those guys didn’t miss it. But, he’ll be back out there in five or six days, whatever it is, and I like our chances to win anytime he’s on the mound.”

Hitting three homers boosted the A’s to 24th in the MLB in total homers this season.

“It’s part of it, right? [Bello] is not going to be perfect,” manager Alex Cora told reporters. “Usually, they don’t hit the ball out of the ballpark, [and] they did — so let’s get ready for the next one. Control wasn’t great, the changeup wasn’t good early on and obviously, they did a good job offensively.”

Bello struggled with his control. He threw 28 changeups — the highest percentage of his 67 pitches — as well as 20 sinkers, nine sliders and eight fastballs. He tried a pair of cutters as well, which are new for him.

“The changeup in particular wasn’t great, and I suffered the consequences,” Bello said.

“It’s just a bad outing, you know,” Cora added. “It happens. He’ll be ready for the next one.”

Bello struck out five, giving up eight hits and no walks. He is now 7-5 this season.