Red Sox option struggling pitcher Brayan Bello to Triple-A Worcester, move Crochet to 60-day IL

NEW YORK (AP) — The Boston Red Sox optioned right-hander Brayan Bello to Triple-A Worcester on Friday, a day after the pitcher allowed eight runs against the Baltimore Orioles and expressed frustration about questions regarding his role as a starter or a reliever.

Bello is 2-6 with a 6.34 ERA in 12 appearances this season. He made his eighth start in Thursday’s 8-2 loss to Baltimore and was tagged for seven hits in five innings.

“Just stop talking about bullpen and starting games,” Bello said through a translator on Thursday. “I’ve always been a starter. And when I’ve been successful as a starter, nobody has questioned whether I have to be in the bullpen or starting games.”

Bello went 1-4 with a 9.12 ERA in his first six starts before allowing two runs in 13 1/3 innings following an opener on May 5 and May 12. He returned to starting and allowed seven runs in five innings at Atlanta five days later and permitted two runs in 12 innings as a bulk reliever in Boston’s losses to Minnesota and Cleveland on May 23 and 29.

“He always had a smile on his face, interacting with his teammates and you could tell he loved to compete and loved to pitch,” Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said Friday before the Red Sox opened a three-game series against the Yankees. “And I think we’ve lost that a little bit where he was putting a ton of pressure on himself to go out and perform. So one of the things we asked him to do was to fall in love with baseball all over again.”

The Red Sox did not announce who would take Bello’s next turn. Jake Bennett, who has a 4.35 ERA in his first two career starts, is a candidate to make that start.

Bello is 41-42 with a 4.32 ERA in 112 career appearances for the Red Sox. He debuted in 2022, won 14 games in 2024 and signed a $55 million, six-year contract in March 2024.

Bello is due $6 million in 2026, $8.5 million in 2027, $16 million in 2028 and $19 million in 2029. The deal includes a $21 million team option for 2030 with a $1 million buyout that if exercised would make the agreement worth $75 million over seven seasons.

The Red Sox also moved Garrett Crochet to the 60-day injured list to clear room on the 40-man roster for reliever Joe La Sorsa. La Sorsa’s contract was purchased from Worcester after Boston acquired him from Pittsburgh for cash considerations on Thursday.

Crochet has been on the 15-day injured list since April 29 due to left shoulder inflammation. Following Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Baltimore, the Red Sox announced an MRI showed a low-grade lat strain that was sustained when Crochet faced hitters on May 28.

Crochet was 3-3 with a 6.30 ERA in six starts before getting hurt.

Acquired from the White Sox following the 2024 season, Crochet signed a six-year contract in March 2025. was 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA in 32 starts last season when he led the AL in innings (205 1/3) and strikeouts (255) while finishing second behind Detroit’s Tarik Skubal in the Cy Young race.

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Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Brayan Bello delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Thursday, June 4, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon Saturday killed several members of the Lebanese military, including a senior officer, the Lebanese army said, days after the two sides reached a new ceasefire deal.

The airstrike on the road linking the city of Nabatiyeh with the town of Marjayoun occurred in the morning. The army did not give further details or release the names or ranks of the troops killed.

Local TV stations reported that two members of the military were killed in the airstrike, including a brigadier general.

The latest declared ceasefire came about through U.S.-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon’s government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities. The Lebanese militant group has refused the truce.

The war began on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began their attacks on Iran. Israel has since launched a ground invasion of Lebanon and carried out wide attacks that have displaced more than 1 million people. Israeli attacks have since killed and wounded dozens of Lebanese soldiers.

Israeli troops have seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country’s south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began. The fighting has killed at least 29 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

A view of Beaufort Castle, southeast Lebanon, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)