Brayan Bello throws seven scoreless as Red Sox complete sweep of Yankees

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jun 15, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Was Aaron Judge about to do it again?

Clinging to a two run lead with two on in the top of the eighth, the Red Sox watched as the New York Yankees superstar stepped to the plate with a chance to change the game with one swing of the bat.

The moment echoed the ninth inning of Friday’s game, but while that night Judge got the last laugh, this time the Red Sox made sure the two-time MVP couldn’t spoil the best series of the season.

Garrett Whitlock came on and forced Judge into an inning-ending double play, helping the Red Sox finish off a 2-0 victory to complete the three-game series sweep. Brayan Bello outdueled Yankees ace Max Fried with seven scoreless innings, and Rafael Devers homered to give the Red Sox a bit of breathing room.

The Red Sox (37-36) have now won five straight and seven of their last eight, moving back over .500 for the first time since May 24.

The Red Sox scored first for the fifth straight game, jumping in front on a two-out RBI single by Trevor Story to drive in Romy Gonzalez. Moments earlier Gonzalez had reached on a triple down the right-field line, but the infielder paid for it when he face planted while sliding into third.

Gonzalez was briefly checked by the trainer but remained in the game.

The offense had plenty of opportunities to extend the lead against Fried, but the Yankees left-hander did an excellent job of drawing key double plays to stamp out the rallies before they could get out of hand. He drew three within the first four innings, two coming off the bat of Rafael Devers and the third courtesy of Connor Wong to end the fourth.

Devers bounced back his third time up in the bottom of the fifth, however, taking Fried deep to the Green Monster seats for a solo home run. That made it 2-0 Red Sox and was Devers’ 15th home run of the season and the 500th extra-base hit of his career.

Fried finished with two runs allowed over seven innings with nine strikeouts, but Bello held his own and continued Boston’s recent stretch of strong starting pitching.

The Red Sox right-hander tossed seven scoreless innings, giving him his third straight quality start after going five straight starts with fewer than five innings. Dating back to June 9 the Red Sox have now strung together six straight games with six or more innings pitched by their starters, and eight straight games with at least five innings.

Bello allowed three hits and three walks while striking out eight and recording a career-high 114 pitches, and most notably he struck out Judge three times.

Judge leaves town with nine strikeouts on the weekend, including three in each game. According to the Red Sox this is the first three-game span in which Judge has struck out nine times this season, and the first time the Red Sox have struck him out nine or more times in a three-game span.

Things got tense in the top of the eighth when Brennan Bernardino came on for Bello and immediately allowed back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Bernardino was able to strike out Ben Rice for the first out, at which point Red Sox manager Alex Cora went to Whitlock to face Judge.

Whitlock only needed two pitches to draw the inning-ending double play, and from there and polished off a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.