Chad Tracy ignored the numbers and started Brayan Bello anyway. The Boston Red Sox’s interim manager knew Bello was struggling to start games. But he still handed him the ball against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday. The decision was a total disaster. The Red Sox lost 8-2, dropping their season record to a disappointing 26-35.

The team has invested heavily in Bello, and they wanted their investment to work out. The Red Sox signed him to a six-year, $55 million contract extension to keep him through at least 2029. And because of that, they wanted him to succeed as a starting pitcher to lead their rotation. That is also the reason Tracy kept trying to force Bello to start. Tracy also explained why he kept starting him despite constant failures.

“It just feels like for us to be successful, we need Bello to start… We gotta put him out there… he’s gotta go out there and pitch,” Manager Chad Tracy said before the game began.

But once the game started, his plan of starting Bello was a disaster. Chad Tracy knew the numbers were not on Brayan Bello’s side before Thursday’s game against the Orioles. The Red Sox’s interim manager had seen Bello struggle as a traditional starter this season. But Tracy believed that Boston’s long-term success depends on Bello figuring things out in that role.

The problem is that all the stats clearly showed this was a bad idea. Before Thursday’s game, Bello had an awful 9.68 ERA when pitching as a traditional starter. However, when the Red Sox used an opener for the first inning and brought Bello in after them, he was amazing. With an opener, Bello had a 0.71 ERA, giving up only two runs in over 25 innings.

Despite those clear numbers, Tracy stuck with his gut. He pointed to an outing against Cleveland where Bello faced eight left-handed hitters and had a great game. Bello pitched seven scoreless innings in that game. But that was a rare performance. The biggest issue for Bello this season has been left-handed hitters.

According to Statmuse, lefties have 45 hits, eight homers, and 17 walks against him this season.

With that in mind, the Orioles played four left-handers and two more switch hitters. It looks like it paid off for the Orioles. The Orioles scored six runs in the very first inning, and the game was finished there. Bello finished that game with five innings, eight earned runs, and three walks.

And after the outing, the fans are not happy that even with all the numbers to make a case for the Red Sox not to use Brayan Bello as a starter. They did, they paid the price, and now the season is slowly going farther and farther from their reach.

Red Sox fans are not happy with Chad Tracy after Brayan Bello messes up

Now, the fans are not only going after Brayan Bello for his bad performance. They are also going after interim manager Chad Tracy for making the choice.

“Bello one inning 6 runs… force feeding a guy doing that well with it to start vs using the opener is just another manager trying to be smarter than everyone else,” said one fan. While another wrote, “Well, Chad, he is not getting the job done. He is hurting the team.”

Both these comments are more criticizing the manager Chad Tracy than the player. We all know that Brayan Bello is not a good starter and gives away a lot of runs wherever he starts. And for a team that is so analytical, they choose to ignore this. And the game ended with him giving away 6 runs in the very first inning. W, not doing very well, maybe it is time to look at an alternative.

After Bello’s 40-pitch first inning, one fan wrote, “Guess he won’t be starting much longer.” The criticism reflected the result as the Orioles batted around the lineup in the very first inning.

“No command of any pitches,” matched concerns after as batters average .394 against Bello’s cutter.

It’s even worse when he throws a fastball, as the batters average .667, while his change-up has minimal movement, making it easy for batters to get hits off him.

One frustrated fan wrote, “Bello is a joke,” after another difficult stretch this season.

And the game against the Orioles on 24th April is the perfect example of this. In that game, Bello went 3.1 innings and gave away 13 hits, 8 runs, and 5 homers. He was used as a starter in this game, too. This clearly shows that Bello is not cut out for the Red Sox, at least not yet. He either needs to be sent back to the minors to improve or he should be let go, because keeping him will not make any sense for the Red Sox.

Amid all this, there was another incident in the game that angered the fans. “Maybe the worst body language of all time, this guy stinks so bad,” wrote one fan after Bello refused to listen to the catcher.

Bello already had 16 pitches and had given away a run with runners on the corners at that point. Catcher Carlos Narváez wanted to talk to him, but Bello wanted to hear none of it and even waved him off. But Narváez didn’t want to risk it and still went ahead and talked to him.

It did not help, as Bello still gave up six runs in the inning.

After Thursday’s disaster, the team finally made a major move. The Red Sox demoted Bello to Triple-A Worcester. He will now try to fix his pitches in the minor leagues.

The team has lost Garrett Crochet and Kutter Crawford to the IL. And if the team continues to pitch like this, they might as well forget about the postseason, and Craig Breslow can forget about leading the front office next season.