Suarez passes test against former friends with scoreless showing

BOSTON -- Facing his former teammates for the first time since signing with Boston in the offseason, Ranger Suarez was electric, tossing 5 1/3 scoreless innings in a 3-1 loss against the Phillies at Fenway Park on Thursday.

Returning to the hill for the first time since exiting his last start on May 3rd with right hamstring tightness, the left-hander retired the first 11 batters he faced before yielding a walk to Bryce Harper in the fourth.

Suarez held his old pals hitless through four innings, but Alec Bohm led off the fifth with a single. The Boston hurler would allow two more base hits in the inning, but avoided disaster by striking out back-to-back batters with the bases loaded to end the threat.

The Red Sox starter allowed four hits (all singles), a walk and struck out eight batters while extending his scoreless innings streak to 19 frames.

Unfortunately, Suarez was locked into a duel with Jesús Luzardo, who allowed four hits and kept Boston off the scoreboard in his six innings of work. That gave the visitors enough time to line up their shot, which turned out to be a two-run homer off the bat of Kyle Schwarber in the eighth, his 18th of the season.

Suarez spent 13 years in the Phillies organization and eight of those with the big club where he appeared in 187 games, starting in 119 of them. With the Phils, he had a 3.38 ERA and won 55 games, striking out 705 batters over 762 innings.

Through his first eight starts with the Red Sox, he’s 2-2 with a 2.44 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP, which ranks 10th best in the game among qualified pitchers.