Sometimes, an obvious storyline emerges after a baseball game. One narrative that towers over everything else and sucks up all the oxygen in the room. That wasn’t the case tonight. Not only are there multiple storylines, but all the big ones are positive.

So here’s what we’re going to do: Dive right into the “Three Studs” section of our usual game wrap and expand a bit on a trio of good feeling.

Three Studs

Brayan Bello:

The best part about Brayan Bello’s performance in this his belated opening outing of the season is what it wasn’t. Teetering on the edge of disaster before the Boston bats had a chance to balance the battle, Bello brought it back from the brink on a boost from a break, and molded his shaky start into a solid stepping stone.

Five batters into the game, Bello was one mistake away from burying his team. Four consecutive men had reached by way of a home run, a walk, and two hit by pitches. He seemed to be coming unglued in a way we’ve seen so many times before. But then, this happened:

Not only did he get some serious glove love from his defense, but he was also actively involved in it, which only further fired him up. Despite never truly locking in, Bello didn’t allow another run the rest of the night.

This is the key with Brayan Bello: How does he grind through moments of adversity? We know he has the talent and we know he has the passion to be a top of the rotation pitcher, but what we don’t know yet is if he can consistently keep the train on the tracks when things start to slide. Tonight, he took a huge step in that regard, and he clearly knew it when he walked off the mound after the fifth inning with the Mariners still stuck on one run. He was AMPED UP!

Even though it sometimes gets him in trouble, this raw emotion Bello displays on the mound is one of my favorite things about him. Unfortunately, it’s also gotten him in trouble with innings spiraling out of control several times in his career, but you simply can’t teach the fire burning inside this guy.

This flame can be harnessed. This flame can be controlled. And in time, if used properly, this flame can become a weapon.

Triston Casas:

Coming into tonight, Triston Casas ranked dead last in WAR among all players to play at least one game at first base so far this season.

Disastrous almost isn’t a strong enough word to describe his start to the season. He went from batting cleanup in the first dozen or so games to people figuring out ways to construct the roster without him on it. He was, and to be fair, probably still is about ten more bad games away from having everyday playing time being taken away.

But Casas took the first, and potentially most important step tonight in pushing back on the walls closing in on him. Here’s his moment of smashing relief:

It was his first home run in three weeks, it was a three-run bomb, and it came in a one run game where Seattle was knocking on the door and you didn’t want to waste Bello’s outing. Huge for Casas, and huge for the team! Now we’ll see if he can build on it, or if the whispers start up again in a handful of days.

(As a random but compelling side note, this was the eighth three-run home run for the Red Sox this year, and that leads all of baseball. However, despite all these home runs with men on base recently, the Red Sox haven’t hit a grand slam in 612 days, going all the way back to August of 2023. Once again, baseball is being baseball.)

Garrett Whitlock:

The top of the seventh inning was the sneakiest super important moment of the game. Overshadowed by the Casas heroics in the bottom of the inning, Whitlock stormed in and stymied a brewing Seattle surge, and helped solidify all the other successes of the night.

Setting the stage is important here: The Mariners had just scored two runs in the top sixth inning to cut the deficit to 4-3, and the Red Sox had just left the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning despite having Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman coming up with only one out.

To make matters worse, the Mariners had the middle of their order due up including Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena. This is where many games would swing, but any chance of that happening immediately vanished once the angel of death appeared:

Whitlock carved up the middle of the Mariners’ order and uneventfully disposed of any momentum they were building. Once this half inning was over, Seattle didn’t show any signs of life for the rest of the night.

Bonus Stud

Alex Bregman:

On a different evening, Bregman might have been a standout star, but there was so much going on in this one that his two doubles got overshowed. He did however lead all position players in WPA (.196), and I’d be doing a poor job of recapping this game if I didn’t include this double in the fifth inning that gave the Sox some breathing room they would very soon need.

Three Duds

Justin Wilson: Why did the did Sox need the breathing room provided by Bregman? Because Justin Wilson came into the game in the sixth inning and failed to get three of the five hitters he faced out. This included back to back walks, both of which came in to score, and cut the lead to one run at the time.

Trevor Story: As good as he’s been this season, an 0-5 with three strike outs will land you here. (Even so, he still made a pretty sweet play with his glove as the middle man in that first inning double play, which helped pave the foundation for the rest of the game.)

Kristian Campbell: 0-4 with a walk. More forgettable than awful, but as with Story, the bar was higher than usual to stay off this list tonight.

Play of the game

If we’re boiling it down to one, singular electric moment, it’s gotta be the Casas three-run bomb. Here it is again: