MUST-SEE: Brayan Bello FORCES Red Sox Rotation Decision—Can Boston RELY on His HOT Streak?

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Brian Baio proved this weekend that he belongs in the Red Sox postseason rotation.

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What's up, everybody? Welcome to Locked on Red Sox, your daily Boston Red Sox podcast. I'm your host, Gabby Maljanian, and today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. It's time to put your knowledge to the test with College Football Pick'Em from FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app and play College Football Pick'Em for free, only on FanDuel. I'll talk to you all about that a little bit later on today's show. But six games to go in the regular season. What do we need to see from the Red Sox before October hits? Roman Anthony carrying the offense as of late. And Brian Baio changing the pitching conversation. So... I want to zoom out because the Red Sox just went into Tampa Bay over the weekend and faced arguably the best test they could possibly get before October, and the results were pretty mixed. 4-2 win on Friday, 2-1 loss on Saturday on a walk-off, and then a 5-1 loss on Sunday. So they dropped two of three, making their record 84-72. This weekend wasn't entirely discouraging, even though it was frustrating, because one pitcher may have just forced himself into a much bigger postseason role, and that is Brian Bale. He pitched on Saturday, and I don't know what else he could have done. Seriously, he threw eight innings, five hits, one earned run, 11 strikeouts, and the Red Sox lost 2-1. So obviously that's brutal. His eight innings were a season high, and the 11 strikeouts tied his career high. He left after eight with the game tied 1-1 before Garrett Whitlock ended up surrendering the walk-off run in the ninth. Absolutely criminal that Brian Mayo didn't get a win that day with the way that he pitched. And this wasn't against a team like the Angels, who, no offense, have a weaker lineup. It wasn't against a September lineup filled with AAA players. It was the Rays on the road. A Rays team that has the best record in the AL. A team that ultimately finished its home schedule 55-26. That's a 679 winning percentage at home. And Bayo went into their building and gave the Red Sox eight innings of one run baseball. That's not a fluke. That's what we have to remember. It's exactly what I wanted to see. Remember what I've been talking about with Brian Mayo on this show. He goes to the