Boston Red Sox
Boston’s last successful no-hitter was thrown by Jon Lester on May 19, 2008, against the Kansas City Royals.
The Red Sox will have to continue waiting for their next no-hitter. AP Photo/John Froschauer
June 20, 2026 | 5:42 PM
3 minutes to read
One of the few bright spots on the 2026 Boston Red Sox has been starting pitcher Ranger Suarez, and he continued that trend Friday night.
Due to the 10:10 p.m. Eastern start time with the Red Sox being in Seattle, you may have missed that Suarez took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning against the Mariners.
Suarez, 30, threw three perfect innings to get his evening started before walking Cal Raleigh in the fourth, but he held Seattle’s bats at bay for another two full innings before allowing his first base hit of the night.
Suarez allowed a leadoff walk, another to Raleigh, in the seventh and recorded one out before Josh Naylor ripped a sharp double down the line.
The 6.2-inning no-hit bid was the longest of Suarez’s career since debuting in 2018.
After the game, Suarez said he was first conscious of the fact that he hadn’t allowed a hit when he went to pitch the seventh, and he knew he would give one up once the realization entered his mind.
“When I was going into the seventh inning, it was the first time that I thought about it. Once I realized that I was thinking about it, I knew it wasn’t gonna happen,” he said through a translator. “The first five innings I was pitching well and I wasn’t thinking about it. Once I started thinking about it, it just didn’t go the way that I wanted.”
Suarez added that the “magic” of his outing went away once he thought about the words “no-hitter.”
“When you start thinking about it, it doesn’t have the same essence as the first six innings,” he said. “Once you start imagining what could be, that’s when it doesn’t happen.”
Carlos Narvaez, who caught Suarez’s excellent start, said he picked up the no-hit scent perhaps earlier than the hurler did.
“Oh, man, he was amazing. I could smell the no-hitter,” he told NESN’s Jahmai Webster on the field. “He was amazing controlling the zone, mixing pitches. … Tough inning, that last one. But you know, he was dialed in.”
Nonetheless, the southpaw recorded 19 outs before the double in a dominant effort on the mound with five strikeouts and no runs. He secured his first victory in his personal win-loss record since April 27 against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Interim manager Chad Tracy opted to take Suarez out of the game after 94 pitches with two outs after he walked Cole Young to load the bases. Reliever Justin Slaten got out of the jam by striking out J.P. Crawford to keep Seattle scoreless with Boston up by five runs.
Suarez has been a key cog in Boston’s fairly strong starting rotation this year. The Red Sox signed him to a five-year, $130 million deal in free agency this past offseason after failing to land a top bat.
He was penciled in to be a big part of the club’s run prevention unit, which has been somewhat successful, but hasn’t led to wins due to extremely lackluster performances from the lineup in plenty of starters’ outings.
But individually, Suarez has been worth his $26 million-per-year contract. He owns a 2.93 ERA and 1.12 WHIP with 75 strikeouts through 14 starts (76.2 innings), and has allowed just four home runs. He’s stayed pretty healthy, too; he dealt with a hamstring issue during an outing in early May, which caused him to miss one start. He never went on the injured list.
Suarez couldn’t quite achieve history with a no-hitter on Friday, but they’ve been extremely hard to come by for Boston in recent memory. Jon Lester threw the club’s last on May 19, 2008, against the Kansas City Royals.
Kaley Brown
Kaley Brown is a sports producer for Boston.com, where she covers the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox.
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