Ranger Suárez’s tenure with the Red Sox got off to a rocky start. The left-hander opened the season with two shortened outings against the Astros and Padres, allowing eight earned runs on 13 hits over 8 1/3 innings.
But on Saturday night, Boston’s $130 million offseason signing delivered his best performance yet, tossing six shutout innings in a 7-1 win over the Cardinals.
“Extremely pumped after that outing, but mostly because we needed the win,” Suárez said (through interpreter Davison Perez). Everybody came in and did their jobs.”
Entering his third start of the season, Suárez was coming off an unconventional spring. He left camp to pitch for Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, where he was part of the eventual championship-winning club.
The disruption limited his buildup, prompting Boston to reshuffle its rotation and give the left-hander additional time to ramp up ahead of the regular season.
Saturday night began with more of the same for Suárez, as he needed 27 pitches to get through the first inning before starting to settle in.
He generated soft contact early, including a double play off the bat of Iván Herrera, a brief glimpse of the Red Sox’ run-prevention model in action. But the momentum didn’t fully stick, as Suárez followed by issuing back-to-back walks.
Suárez found his rhythm from there. He set the Cardinals down in order in the third and faced just four batters in the fourth.
The left-hander was dominant in the fifth and sixth, retiring St. Louis in order in both frames. He needed just seven pitches in the fifth, getting Pedro Pagés to ground out on the first pitch an 89.2 mph sinker fielded by Marcelo Mayer, before striking out Victor Scott II looking on three pitches and inducing a groundout from JJ Wetherholt to Willson Contreras.
“He moved the ball around,” Alex Cora said. “It seems like his arm was a lot quicker than the first two (outings). It tells me he feels better.”
Suárez’s outing Saturday night is exactly what the Red Sox hope to see more of from their new left-hander. Typically calm and composed, Suárez showed visible frustration during a lengthy first inning before settling in. From that point on, he threw just 57 pitches, retiring 15 of the final 17 batters he faced, including a stretch of eight in a row.
“I was definitely trying to be too fine with my pitches,” Suárez said. “After that inning, I was able to reset and pitch the way I normally do.”
In total, Suárez delivered six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits with two walks, both coming in the first, while striking out six. He earned his first win of the season and now has a strong outing to build on as the Red Sox return home next week to face the Tigers at Fenway Park.
“He thought it was really good today. It was diving at the end,” said Cora. The action, the arm, the way he was moving on the mound was good, so that was a good sign.
One thing Suárez emphasized postgame was how much better he felt mechanically. He told Cora that his back leg felt more stable, a key difference from his first two starts.
