The Red Sox will look to left-hander Ranger Suárez to pitch them to a series victory on Sunday.

Suárez, who signed a five-year contract with the Red Sox in January, struggled in his March 30 season debut against the Houston Astros. He lasted just 4 1/3 innings (76 pitches, 44 strikes) and allowed four earned runs on seven hits, including a pair of home runs, issued one walk and struck out three.

“There were two pitches that, if he can take away he (would),” manager Alex Cora said. “The cutter to (Yordan) Alvarez, and actually he tried to like, throw a two-seamer to (Jose) Altuve for a strikeout to freeze him there. You’re not going to do that with him. … Just keep throwing strikes. He wasn’t too good in the edges of the strike zone, and that’s where he lives. He found his rhythm halfway through it, but then after that he left a cutter in the middle, too.”

Asked if MLB’s new Automatic Ball-Strike System (ABS) puts more pressure on pitchers like Suárez to be more precise, his manager said no.

“I think he was precise anyways, so I don’t,” Cora said. “Honestly I haven’t seen a change in the game. There’s certain calls here and there, but as you can see teams have been very cautious, especially in this series.

“I know we talk about our team challenging in low-leverage situations, but if you look in to the whole league, everybody’s doing the same thing. The only thing that we’re not doing with the league is being successful in those challenges early, and that’s where you lose it. But I think the game is being run the same way.

“(Saturday) there were some calls that probably we could’ve challenged early, or them, but teams are being more cautious now. So I think it’s going to flow, and for guys like Sonny (Gray), for Suárez, it’s going to be basically the same.”

The Red Sox entered Sunday 4-3 in batter challenges and 2-4 in fielding challenges (pitcher or catcher). Their overall challenge attempts and number of successful overturns rank near the bottom of the MLB leaderboard.

“I was surprised,” Cora said of seeing his team is below the league in low-leverage challenge situations. “I think it’s more about the conviction. There’s some 50-50 pitches that you’re like, ‘Ah, maybe, maybe not.’ There’s others that you’re like, ‘Yeah, you should be a strike.’ … But I think we’ll keep getting better, and I think it’s going to become more interesting later on. Like little by little, teams are going to wait, wait, wait, and from the seventh inning on it’s actually going to start playing.”

Cora reiterated that the Red Sox haven’t told any of their hitters not to challenge, only their pitching staff.

Roman Anthony will also serve as designated hitter for the third consecutive game, after a rest day in Houston on April 1 and a start in left-field the night before. This, Cora explained, was due to Ceddanne Rafaela starting the game on the bench while Masataka Yoshida started in left and Jarren Duran moved over to center. When Rafaela enters later in the game, the Red Sox won’t have to sacrifice the DH.

“We look at the video and he was better compared to Houston,” Cora said of Anthony’s ongoing defensive training. “We’re not there yet. And that’s not the reason he’s not playing. Today is the whole like, Ceddanne is not playing, when he comes in we take Masa out and we got three outfielders there.”

Red Sox lineup

Roman Anthony DH

Trevor Story SS

Jarren Duran CF

Willson Contreras 1B

Wilyer Abreu RF

Masataka Yoshida LF

Caleb Durbin 3B

Marcelo Mayer 2B

Carlos Narváez C

San Diego Padres lineup

Ramon Laureano LF

Fernando Tatis Jr. RF

Jackson Merrill CF

Manny Machado 3B

Miguel Andujar DH

Xander Bogaerts SS

Nick Castellanos 1B

Jake Cronenworth 2B

Luis Campusano C

Probable pitchers

RHP Walker Buehler (0-1, 6.75 ERA) vs. LHP Ranger Suárez (0-1, 8.31 ERA)

How to watch Padres vs. Red Sox

When: 1:35 p.m. ET

Where: Fenway Park, Boston

Broadcast info: NESN, WEEI 93.7 FM, WCCM 1490 AM (Spanish), WESX 1230 AM (Spanish)