Bello's debut wasn't dominant, but there was a lot to like

Jul. 7—Considering the intense level of hype he arrived with, it'd be easy to look at Brayan Bello's MLB debut as a disappointment.

Bello, the Red Sox top pitching prospect and the most exciting young pitcher to come up through the Red Sox system since Clay Buchholz 15 years ago, didn't wow in Wednesday's 7-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. He allowed four runs over four innings, gave up five hits and three walks, only struck out two and drew just six whiffs out of 33 swings.

That probably isn't quite what the crowd of 33,735 had in mind when they packed the Fenway Park stands, but if fans had visions of Stephen Strasburg's mind-bending debut for the Nationals years ago, Red Sox manager Alex Cora was prescient when he urged fans to avoid drawing too many conclusions no matter how things played out.

"If it's three innings and five runs that doesn't mean he's going to fail at this level, and if he goes seven innings no runs it doesn't mean that he's going to be a Hall of Famer. It just means that he's a big leaguer," Cora said before the game. "It's fun to have these days but at the end of the day the good thing about these kids is they come here and they know what their purpose is, it's to pitch and give us a chance to win."

As it turned out, the Red Sox offense wouldn't have given Bello much help no matter how well he pitched, and the defense didn't do him many favors either. So what should we take away from his debut? That he's not a finished product, but also that there is a lot to like.

Bello's stuff was as good as advertised. His sinker averaged close to 97 mph with great movement, and his changeup was so nifty that the ballpark pitch reader kept confusing it with the sinker despite being 8-10 mph slower on average.

He's also an impressive fielder, starting a 1-4-3 double play to get out of a difficult first inning before later making a tough throw on a ball in front of the mound to get Yandy Diaz in the fourth.

The issue was his command. Bello, who has only walked 33 batters in 85 minor league innings this spring, couldn't effectively locate any of his pitches. He also seemed to be rushing his delivery, but after the game he insisted he wasn't affected by nerves.

"I wasn't nervous at all, just trying to be too selective, and that's not how I am," Bello said via translator Carlos Villoria Benítez. "I like to be aggressive, so that was the key."

We saw something similar happen with Josh Winckowski in his debut a few weeks ago, and he's posted a 1.96 ERA in four starts since. There's no reason Bello can't settle down and bounce back his next time out.

Whether that comes five days from now or if we don't see him again for a while, Bello is going to be fine. and just because his debut was somewhat rocky doesn't mean he can't still reach his immense potential.

"It's going to be a challenge but we believe this kid has a bright future in the organization and he's going to be a big part of what we're trying to accomplish this year and in the future," Cora said. "He's going to be fun to watch."

Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.