The Red Sox head to Baltimore on Friday night to open a four-game series against the Orioles, with Brayan Bello set to face 27-year-old right-hander Brandon Young. Boston arrives at 9-16 and on a three-game losing streak, while Baltimore is 12-13 and trying to hold together a lineup missing Jackson Holliday, Adley Rutchman, Tyler O’Neill, Ryan Mountcastle and Zach Eflin.
Bello’s start matters because it comes after a shuffled schedule and because the right-hander is trying to build on his last six-inning outing. On April 12 against the Cardinals, he allowed two runs in 6.2 innings, and the arrival of Payton Tolle gave Alex Cora the chance to push Bello back a day. Baltimore is countering with Young, who made 12 starts for the club last season and finished with a 6.75 ERA and 5.35 FIP, but has already shown a sharper version this year with five scoreless innings, two hits, two walks and two strikeouts in one appearance.
Trevor Rogers, who won nine games last season and posted a 1.81 ERA and 2.82 FIP over 109.2 innings, is another reason this series has a different feel than the records suggest. The Orioles won 13 of his 18 starts a year ago, a reminder that Baltimore’s pitching can change the tone of a series fast even when the roster is thinned out. Saturday brings Garrett Crochet for Boston against Rogers, and Sunday’s matinee has Kyle Bradish for Baltimore with Connelly Early set to finish the series for the Red Sox.
The Orioles still have a power core that can tilt a game on one swing. Gunnar Henderson has led Baltimore with seven homers, 36 strikeouts and four steals, and the team has 26 home runs overall. That is the kind of number that can turn a short slump into a longer one for Boston, especially with the Red Sox trying to stabilize after another rough stretch. If Roman Anthony is back in the lineup as expected, that would give Boston another needed bat as it tries to break out of the skid.
For now, this is a series built around pitching matchups and a fragile margin for error. Baltimore has been hit hard by injuries, but Young’s chance to follow his scoreless outing and Bello’s effort to keep Boston from slipping further are the kind of details that can decide a weekend before the bats do. For readers also following the broader lineup picture, Masataka Yoshida remains back in focus as Boston waits on Willson Contreras.
