Against Hunter Brown, the Astros’ top starting pitcher and No. 3 finisher in American League Cy Young Award voting last year, the Red Sox didn’t get a hit until the fifth inning. That was Connor Wong’s RBI double, his second extra-base hit in as many starts.
Brown finished six innings having allowed just that one run and one hit. He struck out eight and walked two.
Houston scored early and often against Bello, who had trouble finishing innings (all of the walks and four of the runs came with two outs) and was let down by his defense.
On three plays, each of the Sox’ outfielders was just barely not good enough, helping to put Bello and the team in a hole.
It started in the first inning, when Yordan Alvarez blasted a double off the center-field wall. Ceddanne Rafaela, a Gold Glover, seemed to get a bad read on the ball, leading to an odd route and what was essentially a backward, diagonal jump at the wall. He did not catch it, and the first run scored.
In the third, Carlos Correa shot an automatic double to right-center, where another Gold Glover, Wilyer Abreu, tried to track it down. But Abreu, too, was a step shy, and the ball skipped into the stands, putting runners at second and third. The next batter, Christian Walker, singled to left, where Anthony fielded the ball on a hop. One run scored easily, and Anthony’s throw — a two-hopper that forced catcher Wong up the line — was not good enough to nab the second.
Bello threw his new curveball — a major offseason/spring training project — 15 times and appeared comfortable doing so in two-strike counts in particular. But he had trouble locating it in the strike zone and induced just one swing-and-miss. Another, to Alvarez, turned into a home run in the fifth inning.
Rafaela’s opposite-field solo homer off Astros reliever Cody Bolton capped the scoring in the eighth.
Red Sox lose again as Astros get to Brayan Bello in three of starter’s five frames
