Brayan Bello has a 9.00 ERA after a disastrous start in Baltimore on Friday. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)Getty Images

BALTIMORE — When Alex Cora visited Brayan Bello on the mound in the third inning Friday night, it wasn’t to pull the righty, who had already given up four Orioles homers. It was because Cora saw poor body language from Bello after a one-out walk to Leody Taveras — and wanted to get a message across.

“The reason I went to the mound was like, ‘We don’t need to put the head down,’” Cora said after a 10-3 Red Sox loss. “We’re here to compete, be prepared. We go out there and do our best. Regardless of the situation, you’ve got to keep competing and he actually did. I’ll give him that. But we’ve got to figure it out.”

At Camden Yards, Bello had the worst start of his career Friday. He allowed three homers on the first 13 pitches he threw — and five in total. He allowed 13 hits and got just 10 outs. The Orioles hit nine balls off Bello at 100 mph or harder and he departed with Boston trailing 8-1 in the fourth inning.

Cora vowed that the Red Sox will address what went wrong in the coming days. In the moment, though, the priority was to keep a despondent Bello engaged.

“He was getting hit hard. Very hard…,” Cora said. “There, it gets to the point of, ‘How long can we go with him?’ Just making sure we keep the pitch count up, but at the same time, the confidence.

“I just wanted to make sure. I told (pitching coach Andrew Bailey), ‘My bad.’ I usually don’t do that unless I’m upset at somebody. In this case, it was more about ‘Hey man, we’ve got to keep going. We need you.’ We need Brayan Bello to be good.”

Bello appreciated it.

“When I got that walk, I lost my confidence a little bit and he came right out and reinstated that confidence back up,” Bello said through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “Just motivated me to keep going.”

The Orioles likely wanted Bello to keep going, too, after an early barrage on a nice night in Baltimore. After the Red Sox went down in order in the first, the fireworks began in the bottom of the inning. Gunnar Henderson led off with a no-doubt blast. Taylor Ward singled, then Adley Rutschman launched the first of his two homers. Two batters later, it was Dylan Beavers’ turn to make it 4-0 just 13 pitches into the game.

The O’s scored another run and two hits in the second, then made it 6-1 when Samuel Basallo homered in the third. After Cora’s mound visit, Bello returned for the fourth and allowed Rutschman’s second bomb (a two-run shot) and two singles before departing at 85 pitches.

Bello, who had spiked a rosin bag after the Taveras walk, strutted slowly off the mound in disbelief. In the dugout, he took his frustrations out on a container of bubble gum that he nearly destroyed with an aggressive glove throw.

“It was an impulse emotional moment,” Bello said. “Obviously, we’ve got to be better. At the same time, those are all things we need to work on. Those are an impulse, that in the moment, you can’t control.”

Added Cora: “He was having a horrible day. He’s not upset at gameplanning or game-calling, he’s upset at himself because he expects more. We expect more from him.”

After an inefficient last outing against the Tigers on Saturday, Bello said he needed to attack hitters more often and be more aggressive with his plan. That manifested itself in all the wrong ways Friday. Henderson, Basallo and Rutschman smoked cutters that caught too much of the plate. Bello also gave up homers on a sinker and a four-seamer.

“Pitches in the zone that were hit hard,” said Cora. “He attacked today. He threw a lot of strikes. That was one of the goals but they were ready to hit.”

Bello has now had four poor starts in five tries, failing to get through five innings on every occasion. Outside of a strong 6-⅔ inning effort in St. Louis on April 12, the 26-year-old has taken a major step back in the early part of 2026 after a strong 2025 and encouraging spring training/World Baseball Classic showing that had Red Sox decision-makers excited about a potential breakout.

The numbers are staggering, as Bello has a 9.00 ERA in 22 innings. He has allowed 22 earned runs on 37 hits, including eight homers. His strikeout-to-walk ratio (15-to-13) isn’t impressive, either.

“Yeah, because the stuff is really good,” Cora said when asked if he was surprised by Bello’s struggles. “He’s still throwing hard and the action on the pitches is good. The way he ended spring was a lot better than in the past. In the past, we always had trouble throwing strikes in the spring and the way he ended up was really solid. It’s a little bit surprising.

“You look at it and the stuff looks good, velocity-wise and the actions of the pitches. We’ll sit down tomorrow and break it down. To sit down today and go over it, it doesn’t make any sense.”

With Sonny Gray on the injured list and depth options like Patrick Sandoval, Johan Oviedo and Kutter Crawford unavailable due to arm troubles, the Red Sox plan to “stay the course” and give Bello his next start (set for Wednesday in Toronto), according to Cora. Continued struggles could lead to a hard decision if Gray returns, as expected, in 10-15 days and Payton Tolle continues pitching well.

On Friday, it was clear Bello’s leash is getting shorter — and the frustration is mounting.

“I was trying to compete in the zone,” Bello said. “That was the problem I had in the last few starts. I was able to do it today and they had a good game. There’s nothing you can do about it right now.

“I know that my pitches are good. I know that I’m a good pitcher. It’s just a bad day.”