Suarez (8 scoreless) shoves again, with 10 K's and 5 no-hit frames to boot

TORONTO -- When Ranger Suarez is at his best, few pitchers are harder to square up.

There was no better example of that than Monday’s eight scoreless innings in a 5-0 Red Sox win over the Blue Jays.

Suarez looked worth every penny of the $130 million deal Boston handed him this offseason, keeping Toronto hitless and facing the minimum through five dominant innings.

“I wasn’t thinking about a no-hitter. I wanted to get quick outs,” Suarez said postgame. “That was my mentality, trying to get quick outs so I could go deeper into the game.”

Monday’s start marked the third time in his past four outings that Suarez has been able to do just that for the Red Sox without allowing a run.

His eight innings against the Blue Jays matched the deepest he’s worked this season -- he also delivered eight scoreless against Detroit on April 17 -- and dropped his ERA to 3.09 in his debut Red Sox campaign. And while Suarez typically finds his way to success by generating soft contact, the 30-year-old had his swing-and-miss stuff working in front of a sold-out Rogers Centre.

Suarez set a season high with 10 strikeouts, keeping the Blue Jays off balance by staying away from the heart of the plate for most of the game. The veteran southpaw mixed five pitches and earned several called strikes with his trio of fastballs. Toronto let 19 combined fastballs, sinkers and cutters land in the zone without a swing.

“He just commanded the game,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “... Just his ability to move the ball in and out, change speeds, elevate, go down below the zone, get the ball on the plate, it’s really good.”

Suarez’s shot at the record books was foiled by an opposite-field double off the bat of Jesús Sánchez to lead off the sixth. Sánchez's hit left his bat at just 83.3 mph and snuck inside the third-base bag to beat the shift, ending Suarez’s bid at the 19th no-hitter in franchise history.

Sánchez was only the second baserunner Suarez allowed on the night, and Sánchez was stranded at second as Suarez struck out the next two batters and coaxed a flyout to end the inning.

“At that point, my mindset was just not to let that run score,” Suarez said. “Obviously, after the double, I had to reset and change my mindset.”

In addition to the stakes of the matchup between division rivals and coming on the heels of Boston parting ways with manager Alex Cora, the series opener also pitted two high-priced free-agent pitching signings against one another. Suarez squared off against Blue Jays righty Dylan Cease, who landed a $210 million deal with Toronto over the winter.

It was the ultimate matchup of pitching styles, with Suarez's deep arsenal and reliance on generating soft contact against Cease’s high-velocity attack.

Suarez’s approach eventually won the battle.

“His pitches were unpredictable. With his stuff, for one, but he was all around the box,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “Everyone's going to make mistakes, and when they do, you have to capitalize. I think it was just a combination of not doing that, and him being pretty stubborn by not living in the middle of the plate. That was the story tonight.”

Boston backed its starter by getting to Cease in three consecutive innings, cashing in four runs with two outs off the righty.

Marcelo Mayer keyed rallies in two of those frames. He drove home the game’s opening run with a 101.3 mph single in the fourth and came around to score after walking in the sixth as part of a 2-for-3 game.

“Just doing a really good job of passing the baton,” Mayer said of Boston’s pressure against Cease in the middle innings. “[Wilyer Abreu] did a really great job there. Great at-bat [in the fourth] and put me in a situation to be able to [score him].

“So we've got to keep that approach going.”

Carlos Narváez added some insurance with a solo shot off Chase Lee in the eighth, helping Boston to a third consecutive win and its second under Tracy.