Red Sox Taking Smart Risk With Brayan Bello Catcher Decision Vs. Yankees

The Boston Red Sox are putting their hopes of heading to the American League Division Series squarely on Brayan Bello's shoulders on Wednesday night.

Despite a rough September, Bello was the Red Sox's second-best starter all season, and the clear choice to start Game 2 with Lucas Giolito sidelined by an elbow injury. He'll bring his three-plus years of big-league experience to the playoffs for the first time, coming off his best regular season by far.

The Red Sox want to give Bello every chance to succeed, but they also want to score runs against Yankees starter Carlos Rodón. That's why it made complete sense that they made a significant change to Bello's routine.

Carlos Narváez to catch for Bello on Wednesday

The Red Sox announced their Game 2 lineup, and it included Carlos Narváez at catcher for the second night in a row. But Bello had thrown his last 15 starts of the regular season to Connor Wong, so it may have been a slight surprise for some that Boston would switch him back to Narváez.

However, as manager Alex Cora explained on "WEEI Afternoons" on Wednesday, the move was made to get the superior hitter in Narváez in the lineup. The rookie drew three walks against Yankees pitching in Game 1 and homered off Yankees Game 2 starter Carlos Rodón back in June.

"I lived this in (2018) with Sandy León and Rick Porcello, coming to New York, and we decided to catch Christian Vázquez," Cora said. "I just feel like we need Narvi's bad in the lineup, and he's one of the best defenders in the big leagues, so he'll be okay."

The reality is that while the "personal catcher" system works in the regular system, it's really a vehicle to get starting catchers regular rest more than a winning strategy.

Bello also had a 3.07 ERA in six starts with Narváez as his catcher this season, as opposed to 3.41 in 23 starts with Wong (though he admittedly allowed a much lower OPS in the starts throwing to Wong).

Sure, Bello might be more comfortable at this point throwing to Wong, but if the comfort was so great that Cora shouldn't dare mess with it, he probably wouldn't have a 5.40 ERA in his last five starts.

It's hard to see why Wong should start any specific game in the postseason after putting up a .500 OPS in the regular season, but playoff baseball has a funny way of putting even the most unexpected players in the spotlight eventually.

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