ST. LOUIS — Brayan Bello snatched his glove off his left hand with two outs in the fifth inning Friday evening.
The Cardinals were in launch mode against the righthander, scoring four runs on three homers. The fifth didn’t have the sound of fireworks echoing throughout Busch Stadium following a trip around the bases, but the RBI single by Paul Goldschmidt was another boom in the Cardinals’ 10-6 victory over the Red Sox.
“His changeup wasn’t good today,” said Sox manager Alex Cora. “It was tough for him to get swings and misses. I felt like the slider was better than the changeup, but he grinded through it.”
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The Red Sox have lost 10 of their last 14 games, including three in a row, to fall below .500 at 22-23. Their 10 runs allowed Friday tied a season worst, and St. Louis’s 10 runs matched the best of the season from what had been the National League’s lowest-scoring team.
Bello, in his second start since returning from the injured list, was roughed up in just 4⅔ innings of the series opener. While he didn’t walk a batter, he lacked command, needing 100 pitches in what was his shortest start of this young season.
“It was a bad outing,” said Bello. “The team did everything they could to score runs and give me run support, but I wasn’t able to make the adjustment tonight and it was a bad outing for me.”
Lars Nootbaar started the party against Bello in the first, pummeling an outside-corner changeup for a two-run shot to center. The Sox tied it in the top of the second on a single (Tyler O’Neill), double (Dom Smith), and David Hamilton two-run triple, only for Nolan Gorman to crush a Bello sinker in the heart of the plate 407 feet in the bottom half.
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“The changeup wasn’t there today,” added Bello, agreeing with Cora. “But the slider helped me out a little bit today. I felt good about that.”
“They fouled off a lot of pitches,” said Cora. “It’s just his second start coming from the [injured list], but not having his best pitch kind of put him in a bad spot today because they kept fouling off pitches. [Nolan] Arenado had a long at-bat there. The lefties did a good job throughout the night, kind of like staying to the big side of the field too.
“So this is a tough one. He’ll turn the page and be ready for the next one.”
A Rafael Devers solo shot in the third tied it again. An Alec Burleson solo shot in the fourth made it 4-3, Cardinals.
St. Louis, however, didn’t stop hitting when Bello left. Masyn Winn slugged a two-run homer against reliever Cam Booser in the sixth. The four homers surrendered by the Sox tied a season worst; they also allowed four to Baltimore April 11.
The Sox pulled within 7-5 with two runs in the seventh, highlighted by a Connor Wong RBI double, but Burleson and Iván Herrera singled home runs to make it 9-5, Cardinals, in the eighth. Wong tied a career high in hits by going 4 for 5 with a double and an RBI.
The teams traded single runs in their last ups to cap the scoring. Between them, they scored in 11 of the 17 half-innings in the game.
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“We did OK offensively, but at the end, we were 3 for 12 with runners in scoring position,” said Cora. “But the at-bats are getting better which is a positive out of the game.”
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him @byJulianMack.