Morning Sports Update
Bello is now throwing a curveball after logging a 5.40 ERA last September.
Brayan Bello had a career year in 2025 before struggling down the stretch. (Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff)
February 13, 2026 | 12:10 PM
5 minutes to read
Brayan Bello now throwing a curveball after a rough end to 2025 season: Brayan Bello got his first taste of high-stakes baseball in the majors last season and didn’t thrive. Now, he’s making tweaks to his game to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
The Red Sox’ right-handed pitcher revealed that he’s added a curveball to his repertoire when he threw at spring training on Thursday. As Bello gets comfortable with his new pitch, he shared how his lackluster outing against the Yankees in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series last season taught him a lesson.
“It was fast. Too fast for my taste,” Bello told reporters of that start, via an interpreter. “But at the same time, you can see the difference between a regular-season start and the postseason. The adrenaline is completely different when you’re in the postseason and I think that’s something I learned from it.”
In that start, Bello lasted just 2 1/3 innings as he gave up two runs on four hits and a walk. While Bello only allowed two runs, the Yankees had two runners on board and were threatening to pull ahead when manager Alex Cora removed him.
That start was just the low point of a rocky final month to the 2025 season for Bello. He went 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 25 innings pitched over five starts last September.
The bumpy starts from Bello preceded the Red Sox’ moves to bolster the front end of their rotation this offseason. They traded for righty Sonny Gray and signed lefty Ranger Suarez over the winter. Both pitchers, along with Opening Day starter Garrett Crochet, are expected to slot ahead of Bello in the rotation.
On top of that, Bello’s name was bandied about in trade rumors over the offseason. Young pitchers like Connelly Early and Payton Tolle could also threaten his spot in the rotation in the near future.
So, that’s why even after having the most productive season of his four-year career in 2025, Bello felt the need to improve over the offseason. Part of that mission to improve includes talking with Suarez on how to improve his curveball.
“I’m someone who always wants to learn and always wants to improve,” Bello said of his talks with Suarez. “I always talk to him. We play catch together. So I was telling him that I was trying a new grip on my changeup, and he was telling me that it was good. And also I was asking for some advice on how to release the ball.
“I think that this year I’m gonna learn a lot from him. So I feel like I’m very excited for this season, as well.”
Bello also shared that he actually threw a form of a curveball to hitters last season, saying that he thinks his pitch is “85 to 90 percent there.”
“Last year, I threw a sweeper and to lefties it was a little more of a curveball and to righties it was more like a sweeper,” Bello said. “So this offseason and during the spring training, I’m working to separate those two profiles and trying to separate the curveball grip and a sweeper grip.
“It’s not something that is new to me, just more repetitions than anything,” Bello added. “Last year I was throwing it unintentionally. Now we have more intent behind every pitch and every grip.
Opposing hitters logged just a .202 batting average against Bello’s sweeper last season. So, if his curveball is similar to that, then he might be in a good spot to use the pitch effectively in 2026. But his top pitch in 2025 was his sinker, with Baseball Savant determining that Bello was one of baseball’s top sinker throwers last year.
Bello’s sinker earned some high praise at Red Sox camp on Thursday, with Gray calling it a “disgusting” pitch. But Bello is ready to dig in and attack with his expanded repertoire in 2026, saying he believes “there’s a lot to build off from last year.”
“One of the things that I took from last year and to this year is how aggressive I was with my pitches,” Bello said. “I’m going to build off of that this year, how aggressive I am with my pitches and how much improved those pitches are from last year. I feel there’s a lot to build off from last year.”
Trivia:
Brayan Bello logged a 3.35 ERA last season. Who was the last Red Sox homegrown pitcher to log as strong an ERA in a season while pitching the required number of innings to qualify?
Scores and schedules:
The Celtics are on Day 2 of their seven-day break for the NBA All-Star Game. NBA All-Star Weekend begins on Friday with the Rising Stars Challenge and concludes with the All-Star Game at 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The United States men’s ice hockey team defeated Latvia, 5-1, in its opening match at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The U.S. continues group play when they take on Denmark on Saturday at 3:10 p.m.
The United States women’s ice hockey team is in the knockout stage at the 2026 Winter Olympics. It faces Italy in the quarterfinals on Friday at 3:10 p.m.
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Latest mic’d up from Super Bowl LX shows frustration on Patriots’ sideline
In one of the latest mic’d up clips to go viral from Super Bowl LX, Patriots defensive tackle Christian Barmore couldn’t hold back his disappointment in how their loss to the Seahawks played out.
“It wasn’t us,” Barmore told fellow Patriots defensive tackle Milton Williams multiple times.
Williams had a message for Barmore, though.
“Now we just gotta build on it for next year,” Williams said. “Keep getting better and better.”
#Patriots DTs Milton Williams and Christian Barmore left it all out on the field.
Barmore: “It wasn’t us, bro. It wasn’t us, man. It wasn’t us, twin. It wasn’t us, bro. It wasn’t us, twin.”
Williams: “Now we just gotta build on it… Keep getting better and better.”
(🎥 @NFL) pic.twitter.com/J6o0pTivsp
— Carlos A. Lopez (@LosTalksPats) February 12, 2026
On this day
Sixteen years ago on Friday, Celtics star Paul Pierce won the NBA’s Three-Point Contest during All-Star Weekend. Pierce made 17 shots in the first round before draining 20 shots in the final round to outlast then-Warriors rookie Steph Curry, who made 17 shots, and Chauncey Billups, who made 14 shots.
Daily highlight
The United States men’s ice hockey team’s chemistry was on point in its win over Latvia. Late in the second period, the team perfectly executed a string of passes that led to a goal for Avalanche star Brock Nelson.
Trivia answer: Jon Lester in 2010
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