All eyes were on Brayan Bello when he took the mound in Miami on Wednesday evening.

That’s been the case since spring training, when the Red Sox signed him to a hefty pre-arbitration extension. But that show of faith has only heightened the concern surrounding Bello’s struggles this season. When he went on the injured list following his April 19 game, he owned a 3.04 ERA over his first five starts of the year. Since being activated on May 12, he owned a 7.05 ERA over nine starts (entering Wednesday), so when manager Alex Cora announced last week that Bello’s start would be pushed back, it guaranteed the young right-hander would be under an even brighter spotlight.

The Marlins may among MLB’s cellar-dwellers this year, but it was encouraging to see Bello navigate 6 2/3 innings, his longest start of the season, and pitch Boston to a 7-2 victory and series win. For the first time since April 19 — when he pitched six shutout innings in Pittsburgh in his last start before going on the IL — the righty allowed no more than one (earned) run. He held Miami to seven hits and one walk and struck out seven.

“No hesitation of him going in the seventh,” Cora said. “He’s one of our best ones, and we gotta get him going, and today was a good one.”

The Red Sox starter’s evening began on tenuous footing. He allowed back-to-back singles to Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Bryan De La Cruz, then gave the Marlins an early 1-0 lead on a one-out single by Jesús Sánchez.

Undeterred, Bello worked his way out of the trouble he’d created for himself.

“He did a good job, and he responded in the first inning the way we wanted to. They came out swinging, they got their hits, but he stayed attacking,” Cora told reporters. “Base hits, traffic right away, but he kept throwing strikes and that’s the most important thing. … He went out there and performed.”

Bello threw 91 pitches, 61 for strikes. He relied heavily on his sinker (36%) and change-up (30%), and mixed in a fair amount of sliders (22%). It was an encouraging sign that five of the 11 swings and misses Bello induced were on his change-up; it’s a key weapon for him, but he’s been struggling to deploy it this year.

“His stuff was really good, he was throwing hard, the change-up was probably his best one of the season,” his manager lauded.

For this ‘prove it’ performance, Bello truly pulled out all the stops, going to his four-seam fastball for the first time this year.

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