With the series not quite on the line yet — but pretty close to being on the line — Alex Cora didn’t take any chances with Brayan Bello in Game 2, pulling him after just 28 pitches. Any loss last night would have been demoralizing. But last night’s loss was particularly painful given the way it made tonight’s game that much harder. The bullpen gave the Sox some extremely solid pitching in cobbling together 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball to keep the game competitive. But one can only imagine how much more rested that bullpen would be tonight if Bello came out of the gate with good stuff on Wednesday. Now, if Connelly Early also doesn’t have his good stuff in the Bronx, the bullpen will get five months of rest.
This puts Alex Cora in a precarious predicament, which he’s no stranger to this season. The Sox have three pitchers who haven’t been used in the playoffs thus far: Connelly Early, Kyle Harrison, and Greg Weissert. The first two are guys I’m extremely excited about going forward. But that does not mean I’m excited to use them in this position, which signals obvious negligence at the trade deadline by Craig Breslow. But we knew that, and this article’s not about that, nor is it about Cora gambling and coming out behind. The real question is: after just 28 pitches thrown yesterday, will we see Brayan Bello in any capacity on Wednesday?
It wouldn’t be Plan A. Let’s say the Sox get on the board early against rookie Cam Schlittler, a Walpole native who’s shown very promising stuff in his 14 major league starts thus far. Early has lasted at least 4 innings in each of his 4 career starts, but he has never recorded more than 18 outs dating back to his time in Portland. I don’t see any scenario in which Cora goes to Bello before going to Harrison (if the team is ahead) or Weissert (if they’re trailing). Harrison went 3, 6, and 3 innings in his starts for the Sox this year and he can stretch the staff.
There’s also the issue of Aaron Boone’s blunder in leaving Jazz Chisholm and Ben Rice out of the lineup in Game 1 while facing a lefty, which may have even gotten us to this scenario. Add the 5 innings Early can give you with 3 or so from fellow lefty Harrison and the math is easy. If the team is ahead, Aroldis Chapman comes in fresh and as the obvious choice. If they’re very behind, Payton Tolle could also go multiple innings as he was used for just 7 pitches last night, getting out of a jam and then taking a seat.
Then there’s the unused Greg Weissert. If you’re trying to catch Aaron Boone sleeping after starting the game with a lineup designed to combat lefties again, Weissert would be the logical guy to go to, particularly if the other option is a guy who didn’t have his stuff just 24 short hours ago. Weissert’s numbers are good: he arrived at October with a sub-3 ERA for the season. That might not feel right given a few recent high-profile failures, but, alas, he finished September with a 1.89 earned run average in 10 games (though he has been not good with inherited runners.) But I’ll be frank: Weissert makes me extremely nervous. And, anecdotally, if Connelly Early has a strong performance, you’ll be reminded of Weissert coughing up the lead up in Early’s Fenway Park debut against the A’s. That he did the same in Payton Tolle’s debut doesn’t lend himself favorably in the mind.
Which leads us back to the possibility of seeing Bello tonight, if you can stomach even imagining it. As much as the 26-year-old has grown this season, he came up short Tuesday night, full stop. He may be in need of a redemption arc, as he’s still the second best pitcher in this rotation. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s a real possibility that Bello makes any sort of appearance tonight, and, if it does happen, something has either gone horribly wrong or everything has gone the Red Sox’s way — probably the first one. But, at 28 pitches, and given the way that Alex Cora is known to move his chips to the center of table daring someone to call his bluff, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
