{"id":678174,"date":"2026-04-18T06:34:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T06:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678174\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T06:34:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T06:34:40","slug":"red-sox-lefthander-ranger-suarez-making-it-look-easy-after-slow-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/678174\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox lefthander Ranger Suarez making it look easy after slow start"},"content":{"rendered":"

That was the case against the Tigers at Fenway Park on Friday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Suarez held the Tigers to two singles and a walk over eight scoreless innings. He threw 93 pitches, none harder than the 92.7-mile-per-hour sinker he fired at Kevin McGonigle in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

There was nothing overpowering about how Suarez pitched. The Tigers swung and missed at only four of his pitches all night. But he collected nine outs on ground balls and retired 22 of the final 23 batters he faced, including the final 13.<\/p>\n

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So while Suarez did not get the victory when the Sox beat the Tigers, 1-0, in 10 innings<\/a> on Masataka Yoshida\u2019s walkoff single through a five-man infield, he put the game on a platter for his teammates to snatch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pitching right there,\u201d Sox manager Alex Cora said. \u201cThat\u2019s pitching.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tigers starter Casey Mize, who worked 6 scoreless innings, threw 41 pitches faster than Suarez\u2019s fastest. The game was a perfect example of how two players with the same job on the same field can get the same result in entirely different ways.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Red Sox mobbed Masataka Yoshida after his walkoff single in the 10th inning.Barry Chin\/Globe Staff<\/p>\n

Suarez was in command throughout, throwing 55 of 93 pitches for strikes as he worked at a good pace and stayed ahead of the hitters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what he can do,\u201d first baseman Willson Contreras said.<\/p>\n

Suarez allowed eight earned runs over 8 innings in his first two starts, a performance so shaky that you had to wonder if the Sox made a mistake signing him to a five-year, $130 million contract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it was more a product of Suarez pitching only 4 innings over a 12-day period for Venezuela during the World Baseball Classic. By the time he returned to the Red Sox, Suarez was behind in terms of getting ready for the season and it showed once he took the mound.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a finesse pitcher you need your reps,\u201d Cora said. \u201cYou do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Suarez has caught up and pitched 14 scoreless innings in his last two starts, allowing only five hits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the rhythm, the rhythm I\u2019ve had the last two starts,\u201d Suarez said via a translator. \u201cThat has helped me locate my pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first inning was his biggest challenge. McGonigle singled with one out and went to third when Jahmai Jones lined what seemed to be a double to left-center.<\/p>\n

But the Sox challenged the call at second base and replays showed Marcelo Mayer had indeed tagged Jones. Suarez then struck out Dillon Dingler swinging at a changeup that plummeted out of the strike zone like it was tied to a rock.<\/p>\n

Outside of walking Dingler in the fourth inning, Suarez didn\u2019t put another runner on base.<\/p>\n

Cora referenced Friday being the type of game the Sox will have to win over the course of the season, pitching well and scratching for runs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how we\u2019re going to play the game with this roster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Suarez doesn\u2019t necessarily see it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that\u2019s not the case,\u201d he said. \u201cAlthough [Friday] was a low-scoring game, I think we\u2019re going to score more runs in the future. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be the rule, to have a lot of 1-0 games and close games. That\u2019s just what we\u2019re going through right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when the Sox aren\u2019t hitting \u2014 they were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position until Yoshida\u2019s winner \u2014 Suarez can handle it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mentality is to go out there and keep being able to throw zeros,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He has 14 of those zeros in a row now, and his next start will be against the Yankees on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social\u202c.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That was the case against the Tigers at Fenway Park on Friday night. Suarez held the Tigers to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-678174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116424325514529174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}