Ha-Los, Ha-Los, It’s Off to Work We Go

The Red Sox got their fifth win in a row with a workmanlike effort that all started with a pretty decent Brayan Bello “start!”

The starter turned bullpen-bulk-guy made his first start since June, and although it was shaky at times, he managed to go five scoreless innings and secure his sixth win of the season.

Bello delivered 103 pitches over five innings while surrendering only four hits and two walks and striking out seven. His first two innings were rather economical, and he showed decent control of the strike zone, although he walked a man in the first and gave up a leadoff single in the second.

He started to labor in the third inning when it appeared his focus dwindled a little after retiring the first two batters on just four pitches. Mike Trout singled to center with two outs, and then LA three-hitter Wade Meckler dropped down an excellent bunt for a hit. Bello then walked Vaughn Grissom to load the bases before retiring Ballesteros on a pop-up.

He was able to survive the inning, but some of the old danger signs were starting to flare up for Bello again. What was more infuriating was that the Sox had just put up four runs in the inning before, and Bello should have been throwing with as much confidence as he could possibly have.

The fourth and fifth innings were a little more of the same from the first two. Although he allowed only one runner in each inning, he was nibbling and throwing a lot of unnecessary pitches to each batter, especially given how good his stuff usually is.

Confidence was clearly an issue for Bello on Labor Day, but to his credit, he was able to avoid the usual complete meltdown that so many of his…