"I even shed some tears, got a little emotional because I have so much love and passion for this game."
By Conor Ryan
3 minutes to read
Just a few days after the Red Sox demoted him to Triple-A Worcester, Boston starter Brayan Bello stressed that he’s ready to build his game back up amid a disastrous start to the 2026 season.
“I’m ready to put in the work down here so whenever it’s my time and whatever role they give me at the big league level, I’m able to take full advantage of it,” Bello said through interpreter Daveson Pérez on Sunday at Worcester’s Polar Park, per MassLive’s Katie Morrison O’Day.
Thursday’s start against the Orioles was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the Red Sox when it came to Bello’s woes as a starter.
In total, Bello gave up eight runs over five innings of work — including six runs in just the first inning. So far this season, the 27-year-old righty has a horrid 16.88 ERA in the first inning of games he’s started.
“It was a really tough day,” Bello said of his last start. “I had a bad outing. We were getting ready to travel, and the trip right now in New York is a family trip, and we were all set up to go up there.
“So when I got the unfortunate news, I even shed some tears, got a little emotional because I have so much love and passion for this game, and to get that bad news was really tough. But we’re better today.”
Despite his prolonged issues this year when handed the ball in the first inning, Bello has been a different pitcher when utilized in more of a bulk reliever role.
In the four games where the Red Sox opened with a reliever and then tasked Bello with pitching deep into the game, he posted a stellar 0.71 ERA, allowing no home runs and holding opponents to a .215 batting average.
However, the Red Sox have stressed this season that Bello needs to start in order for this team to have success — a sentiment that Bello himself echoed in Boston after that last start against Baltimore. He’s expected to start for Worcester on Thursday against Rochester.
Speaking ahead of Boston’s road series against the Yankees on Friday, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said that mechanics, pitch selection, and other tweaks are not the only things that Boston wants Bello to work on down in the minor leagues.
“When I first got here, he was a guy that had this big personality, and always had a smile on his face, interacting with teammates,” Breslow told reporters at Yankee Stadium, including MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “You could tell just how he loved to compete and loved to pitch, and I think we lost that a little bit where he was putting a ton of pressure on himself to go out and perform.
“One of the things that we asked him to do was to kind of fall in love with baseball all over again. To go down and compete. He’s gonna work hard — we know that. But [we told him] to remember why you love playing this game.”
Speaking from Worcester, Bello said that his passion for the game of baseball has never wavered — even if his play on the mound has taken a sizable hit so far this season.
“I’ll never not love this game,” Bello said. “I’ve always had that love, that passion, and I think that’s why I take it to heart when we do lose games or I don’t pitch my best, because I love this game so much. I have so much passion for it. And so it makes those tough times a lot harder because of that love that I have.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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