Gasper plays homer hero again to back Suarez's strong start

BALTIMORE -- On a hot summer Friday night at Camden Yards, nobody would have believed that a solo homer in the top of the first inning by mashing Mickey Gasper would be the difference in the game.

But everything Gasper touches turns to gold of late, and when he barrels the baseball, it frequently leaves the ballpark.

The 30-year-old continued his swift rise from journeyman to surging slugger, and his solo shot to right was indeed all a resurgent Ranger Suarez needed to pitch the Red Sox to a 1-0 victory over the Orioles.

It was Gasper’s eighth homer in his last 14 starts, and the only run of the ballgame.

“He’s been awesome,” said Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy. “I keep saying that I'm running out of words, but what he's done in his opportunities and what he's doing over the course of the last two weeks, he's helping us big time to win baseball games. His at-bats have been awesome.”

The only reason Gasper was even at Camden Yards on Friday night is because the Red Sox had to place Willson Contreras on the 10-day injured list four days earlier with a left hamstring strain. Due to that move, Gasper was able to be recalled from Worcester the day after he was optioned there to make room for the return of Roman Anthony.

Since returning from an option to the Minors, which was so short he never even made it to Worcester, Gasper has belted three more homers.

All eight of Gasper’s homers this season are during this torrid run that started on Aug. 17 and has hardly stopped.

“It feels great,” said Gasper. “Helping the team win, that's the biggest thing. But to scratch one across there, which turned out to be a big run, it’s a good feeling.”

And considering the Sox only had four more hits after Gasper’s homer, it was big for Suarez to get back to being his vintage self, looking like the lefty who was named an All-Star before suffering a left groin strain on July 5.

The crafty lefty went seven scoreless innings, his longest start since he went eight on April 17 at Fenway against the Tigers. Suarez allowed five hits while walking one and striking out three. He threw 91 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.

“Literally, I've been waiting for this start for a while,” said Suarez. “The last three or four starts have been three or four or five innings, or coming out in the sixth. I haven’t been able to complete six. So to be able to have a start like tonight and have a strong end of the year that’s what I’m looking for.”

So, too, are the Red Sox, who improved to 77-65 and hold a five-game lead over the Guardians for the second AL Wild Card spot. Boston trails the Yankees by four games for the top spot, which would mean hosting the best-of-three series.

To secure their second straight win in Baltimore, and at least a split of this four-game series between AL East foes, the Sox leaned heavily on Suarez, who thrived despite generating just three whiffs from Baltimore’s 39 swings.

“There were games in the first half of the season he’d strike out 10, and there's other games where he pitches eight innings on 80-something pitches because he's ahead in the count and you get weak contact and early outs and double-play balls and all sorts of things,” said Tracy. “When he's working ahead and he can put the ball where he wants, he's difficult. We needed that as a team, but also for him, that was a good one.”

It was no surprise the Sox played an errorless game with Suarez working at such a swift pace.

“It was spectacular,” said Gasper. “Sometimes when Ranger pitches, you don't quite realize how spectacular it is just because it's just the flow of the game for him. He just gets the ball and gets right back to work, and then you look back and you say, ‘Oh my goodness, seventh inning.’ He was electric today. He was exactly what we needed.”

At least from a pitching standpoint, Tracy couldn’t have drawn this one up any better.

Once Suarez was done, he turned it over to his brilliant back-end bullpen combo of Garrett Whitlock (1.91 ERA) and Aroldis Chapman (2.08 ERA, 32 saves).

In fact, this was career save No. 399 for Chapman. His next save will make Chapman the ninth member of the 400-club.

“We've spoken a lot about him,” said Tracy. “It's impressive, doing what he's doing as long as he's been doing it, and the work he puts in to keep himself in shape and keep himself able to post as much as he does. He's pretty impressive.”