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.
Monday’s start marked the third time in his past four outings that Suarez has looked the part for the Red Sox. And while he typically finds his way to success by generating soft contact, the 30-year-old had his swing-and-miss stuff working at 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.
His attempt at history was foiled by an opposite-field double off the bat of Jesús Sánchez to lead off the fifth. 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.
In addition to the stakes of Monday’s matchup between division rivals and coming on the heels of Boston parting ways with manager Alex Cora, it 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.
Both starters appeared to be at their best early, but the Red Sox managed to chase Cease after scoring runs in three consecutive innings.
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.
Carlos Narváez added some insurance with a solo shot off Chase Lee in the eighth, helping the Red Sox to a third consecutive win and their second under interim manager Chad Tracy.