Brayan Bello has been the definition of hit or miss this season. The talented but inconsistent right-hander has often struggled to locate his impressive arsenal, but when he’s on you can see why the Red Sox awarded him a six-year contract extension and named him their Opening Day starter coming into the year.

That enormous potential shined bright on Wednesday night.

Bello was sensational in the Red Sox 3-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, throwing eight shutout innings while allowing just two hits and one walk while striking out nine.

It was the longest outing of Bello’s career, and by all accounts his best.

After Bello started things off with a scoreless first inning, the Red Sox quickly grabbed the lead when Jarren Duran led off with a single and came around to score on an RBI single by Wilyer Abreu.

Boston loaded the bases afterwards but couldn’t do any further damage, and after that point Blue Jays starter Chris Bassitt settled down and turned the game into an old fashioned pitcher’s duel.

From the bottom of the first through the end of the sixth Bassitt retired 17 of 18 Red Sox batters, and he ultimately allowed one run on five hits, a walk and a hit batsman with nine strikeouts over 6.2 innings.

Yet Bello had an answer at every turn.

The 25-year-old sent the Blue Jays down 1-2-3 in five of his eight innings and didn’t allow more than one baserunner in any of the others. He drew 15 whiffs and 18 called strikes, including 14 with his sinker alone. No Blue Jays runner advanced past second while he was on the mound, and the only real damage he allowed was a second inning double that didn’t prove consequential.

Even with Bello’s brilliance, the Red Sox were still clinging to a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. With Bassitt out of the picture the bats finally flickered to life against Blue Jays reliever Brendon Little, and after David Hamilton reached on an error by the catcher, Tyler O’Neill gave Boston some breathing room with a towering two-run home run to the Green Monster.

That set the stage for the closer, and Kenley Jansen finished things off with a dominant top of the ninth to finish things out for his 25th save of the season.