BOSTON — The Red Sox opened a three-game series with the Phillies at Fenway Park on Tuesday night with Jovani Morán scheduled to work as the opener and Brayan Bello lined up behind him. Boston came in after a 4-1 loss to the Rays on Sunday, a game in which the club failed to score more than one run for the 10th time this season.
The Red Sox entered at 17-23 and were trying to steady an offense that had gone 5-for-31 with runners in scoring position over its previous four games. Jarren Duran led off in left field for Boston, while Tyler Samaniego carried a streak of 12 consecutive scoreless appearances into the night. Bello, who was listed at 2-4 with a 7.44 ERA, was making his first career appearance against Philadelphia.
Boston has already used the opener-and-follow pattern successfully once this month. Last week in Detroit, the Red Sox sent Morán out first and then turned to Bello, who entered in the second inning and allowed one run on four hits over seven innings in a 10-3 win. That game offered the cleanest version yet of the club’s attempt to get more out of a rotation that has been uneven early in the season.
Philadelphia arrived in better immediate form after taking two straight from the Rockies before Monday’s off day. The Phillies, 19-22, gave the ball to Zack Wheeler for his fourth start of the season, with Kyle Schwarber batting second as the designated hitter. Schwarber had homered in four straight games before Tuesday and carried a career.319 average in 26 games at Fenway Park, along with nine home runs.
Wheeler, listed at 1-0 with a 3.12 ERA, made his season debut April 25 after surgery last September for a blood clot in his right shoulder. He had worked six innings in each of his last two starts and had held opponents to a.180 batting average and a.561 OPS over that stretch. Against the Red Sox in his career, he was 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA in four starts.
The matchup also underscored how much Fenway has mattered to Boston’s slow start. The Red Sox were 7-12 at home and had scored three runs or fewer in 12 of their 19 games at Fenway Park. Against a Philadelphia club with a dangerous middle of the order and a starter coming off strong recent outings, Boston needed more than just a familiar pitching formula to change that trend.
For the Red Sox, the night was about whether the opener plan could buy enough time for Bello to keep them in a game they badly needed after Sunday’s loss. For the Phillies, it was another chance to let Wheeler set the tone in a park where Schwarber has done plenty of damage already.
