title

[Mickey the Mouth]

Brayan Bello Has Best ERA In Baseball When Red Sox Use Opener originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello has allowed less than two earned runs in just three of his ten starts this season. Interim manager Chad Tracy has used an opener in all three of those starts.

Nobody knows what it is, but for some reason, Bello is a completely different pitcher after the first inning. At this point in the season, there is no time for the Red Sox coaching staff to dissect potential causes for this phenomenon. They have to figure out how to win on Bello days, and it seems they have.

Saturday was the third instance of the Red Sox using an opener. Bello inherited a two-run deficit from relief pitcher Jovani Moran, but was nearly flawless in his five innings of work.

Bello was batted around a bit, allowing eight hits. He struck out five batters and walked just one. He did not surrender an earned run, but a really uncharacteristic fifth inning led to the Minnesota Twins scoring two. The Twins reached base on three "infield singles" that would later go down as errors.

With this start now in the books, we have a relatively solid sample size of Bello's ERA with and without using an opener.

In the seven starts without an opener, Bello sports a shocking 9.68 earned run average.

In three starts using an opener, Bello's ERA jumps down to 0.98.

No starting pitcher in baseball has a sub-one ERA.

Even I was surprised to see just how stark the contrast is when Bello enters the game in the second inning. Now, Boston just has to figure out which relief pitcher can throw a scoreless first inning, and they will be golden.

More MLB: Red Sox Provide Big Update In Garrett Crochet Injury Timeline

Read the full recap...