Suspended game's conclusion makes for a short, strange trip at Fenway Park
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'Definitely a weird one,' Story said. 'Resuming play is always kind of a weird vibe. It was a little bit quiet out there, which is weird for Fenway. But as the offense got going, the crowd picked up, and it was fun.'
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With Tuesday's original starters shelved, the teams took different approaches to handling their pitching staffs for the de facto doubleheader. Boston pushed up Bello, originally slated to start Wednesday night, while Cincinnati went with a bullpen game in the afternoon and kept starter Nick Martinez available for the nightcap.
Technically making his first relief appearance since 2022, Bello quickly gave up a two-run homer to Spencer Steer to put Cincinnati ahead, 3-2, in the fourth, but held the Reds scoreless the next four innings.
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'That was a good learning experience for him, because every pitch mattered,' said Sox manager Alex Cora. 'As a starter, you give up three runs in six innings, you're [usually] happy. But there, he needed to make pitches the whole game.'
Bello had gone at least six innings in five straight starts entering Wednesday, and with just 62 pitches through five, he likely would've done it again if not for the Sox taking the lead going into the ninth.
'I treated it like a regular start,' Bello said through a translator. 'I just wanted to keep the game close.'
Nick Burns held down the famed red seat in the bleachers for Wednesday's resumption of Tuesday's suspended game.
Matty Wasserman
The announced attendance was 32,355, but only a portion of Tuesday's crowd made it back on short notice during a work day. One fan who returned was Nick Burns, 25, who had scored the iconic Ted Williams
'I felt I had to at least sit in it once in my career of going to Red Sox games,' he said.
Determined to maximize his time there, Burns got off work and sat alone in the mostly-empty bleachers.
'It worked out perfectly,' Burns said. 'What is better than this?'
The oddities of the fan experience were evident beyond just the small crowd and short concession lines. For one, the eighth-inning rendition of 'Sweet Caroline' came just 1 hour and 1 minute after play resumed.
Even NESN's retro broadcast in
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Closer Aroldis Chapman set aside the Reds 1-2-3 to earn his 350th career save.
'It was quick, but I was ready for it,' Chapman said through a translator. 'I knew that the game was close enough, so I was expecting to get the call in the ninth or any other moment to pitch.'
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The time of the game was 2:09, officially tied for the Sox' second-shortest of the season. Though in reality, it was 20 hours and 41 minutes between the first pitch and last.
After the game, Cora likened it to the seven-inning doubleheaders used during the COVID-impacted seasons in 2020 and 2021.
'I think that was the greatest thing ever in '21. The game is sharper. The fans are into it. And the decision making, you have to be on point,' Cora said.
The Sox were, leading to a series-clinching win that felt like it flew by.
'You had to put it in play, steal a base, put it in play [again], and the game was over,' Cora said.
Matty Wasserman can be reached at
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