BOSTON (AP) — Brayan Bello delivered the longest appearance of his career, pitching eight two-hit innings to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 3-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.
Bello (12-6) struck out nine and walked one, earning just his second win in eight starts since the All-Star break. The 25-year-old right-hander had previously pitched into the eighth inning only once in his career and never recorded more than 24 outs.
Tyler O’Neill hit a home run, Masataka Yoshida had three hits and Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth inning for his 25th save. Boston has beaten Toronto in two consecutive games after losing in (the largest part) of a doubleheader on Monday.
Chris Bassitt (9-13) allowed one run on five hits and one walk and had nine strikeouts before leaving the field with two outs in the seventh inning and a 1-0 deficit. O’Neill hit a two-run homer against reliever Brendon Little in the eighth inning to make it 3-0.
Jarren Duran hit a single to open the game, reached second base on a groundout and scored on a single by Wilyer Abreu to put Boston ahead. Bassitt allowed back-to-back singles by Yoshida and Connor Wong to start the seventh inning — Yoshida’s sinking liner was questioned, but replays showed it briefly bounced into the glove of diving center fielder Daulton Varsho.
Bassitt caught Romy Gonzalez as his bunt attempt bounced up to the catcher, and then Ceddanne struck out Rafaela. When the top of the order was next in line, Little relieved Bassitt and got Duran to hit a flyout to center.
So the score was still 1-0 in the second half of the eighth inning when David Hamilton got on base due to an error by catcher Alejandro Kirk and O’Neill hit the next pitch over the Green Monster.
Next
Toronto’s RHP Bowden Francis (7-3) will face Boston’s Kutter Crawford (8-11) in the series finale on Thursday.
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