BOSTON – For a second straight start, Ranger Suarez was in near-complete control of things, working another seven strong innings to put his club in position for a win.
Last Friday in Baltimore, the southpaw tossed seven scoreless frames en route to his sixth win of the season.
Another seven-inning show on Saturday saw Suarez give up just one run and five hits as he struck out eight batters in a 5-1 Red Sox victory over the Royals at Fenway Park.
“I like it,” said the grinning interim manager, Chad Tracy. “The second one in a row. He was brilliant. Eight K’s, no walks, attacked the zone, used his offspeed very effectively, got people out front, got in on the hands. He was really, really good.”
All in all, the Sox starter had just one pitch truly get away from him – an inside slider that Carter Jensen launched a Statcast-projected 386 feet for a solo home run in the sixth inning to tie the game at 1-1.
The rest of the night, Suarez dug deep into his arsenal to keep Kansas City off balance, lauding some important tweaks for the recent run of results.
“I was able to make some adjustments in my mechanics,” said Suarez. “I’ve been able to locate my pitches better, and you can see the results today.”
The slider was particularly effective on the day, allowing Boston’s starter to work ahead on most of the batters he faced.
“Before, I was leaning forward, so I wasn’t able to locate my sinker,” Suarez explained. “Today, my sinker was on point, so that was a pitch that was working for me. I was able to establish that pitch to open my secondaries.”
The first time through the Red Sox lineup, Royals starter Randy Dobnak was perfect, but Roman Anthony got the Boston bats in motion with a leadoff single in the fourth inning. He would come around to score from second base when Adley Rutschman ripped a one-out single back up the box.
Wilyer Abreu would break the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the sixth with a two-out double that plated Mickey Gasper and Rutschman, and Caleb Durbin added an RBI single off the left-field wall to score Nick Sogard in the seventh.
“That opened the game up,” Tracy said of Abreu’s tiebreaking knock. “We’ve been waiting for a two-out hit, a big hit or a go-ahead hit. … That was a huge swing – biggest swing of the game.”
After striking out three in his seventh and final inning of work, the Fenway faithful provided Suarez with the appropriate ovation, increasing in volume as the hurler neared the dugout.
A key offseason free-agent acquisition, Suarez was 4-3 with a 3.15 ERA over 17 starts before a groin injury sidelined him for a couple of weeks in July.
In returning to the rotation, he took a few starts to get his bearings – something that he seems to have since righted, having gone at least five innings in each of his last six outings.
“It’s important,” said Tracy of Suarez’s effort. “There was a run of four starts there where he was having trouble getting deeper into games, mostly driven by being behind in the count. … He’s trending in a really good direction.”
It was also the fourth time in his last six starts that Suarez allowed one run or fewer, and he improved to 7-4 on the year, lowering his ERA to 3.33.
“I feel like all of my pitches were working today,” Suarez said. “At the end of the day, I felt very good with my stuff.”
The win also halted a three-game losing streak for the Sox, who inched closer toward clinching a Wild Card spot in the postseason.