Ranger

Suarez

Suarez wasn’t dominant, with just a 19 percent whiff rate and a 65 percent strike rate overall, but he got enough called strikes and prevented enough hard contact to get through without much trouble. Part of that was the opponent, but it’s just nice to get a solid start under your belt in your first season with a new team. He’ll look to keep it going next week at home against the Tigers.

Suarez wasn’t quite right in his outings this spring, he wasn’t quite right pitching for Venezuela in the WBC and he’s definitely not quite right now. His velocity is typical, and he’ll probably figure out what’s causing the issues with his sinker, but it might be a little while. He’ll take an 8.64 ERA into his next start against the Cardinals.

Suárez’s velocity was quite good tonight, but he still gave up two homers and five other hard-hit balls in a weak showing that saw him throw first-pitch strikes to just nine of 20 hitters. Maybe he’ll show up against the Padres this weekend, but between his Grapefruit League outings, his WBC performance and this outing tonight, it almost seems like he’s mailed it in since landing a $130 million contract.

Suárez allowed two runs in the first inning and then a two-run home run in the second before settling down and throwing two straight scoreless frames. The fifth inning included three singles and a home run before Suárez was removed from the game. The veteran had only six whiffs on the day, and his velocity was down two mph on his four-seam fastball. We know Suárez is behind schedule due to his time in the World Baseball Classic, so it was good to see him throw 69 pitches here, but he’s also clearly not fully ramped up for the season. We wouldn’t read too much into a spring training start, especially for a pitcher who we know is behind schedule, but we also likely wouldn’t use Suárez against the Astros in his first start.

The 30-year-old southpaw is behind the other Red Sox’ starters in camp with his buildup after being away at the World Baseball Classic, so they’ll give him a few extra days before making his regular season debut. He should be expected to start at some point during the team’s second series of the season which begins on Monday, March 30 against the Astros in Houston.

The 30-year-old southpaw also issued three walks while striking out four in the ballgame. He served up a leadoff solo homer to Shohei Ohtani to open the first inning. Suárez then walked two batters to open the third — one intentionally to Ohtani — before giving up an RBI double to Teruaki Sato and a three-run blast to Shota Morishita. Overall he got five whiffs on 51 pitches on the night, posting a CSW of 25 percent.

Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber for Japan as the defending WBC champions host Venezuela at loanDepot park in Miami. It’s a challenging assignment for Suárez having to face a loaded Japan lineup that is headlined by generational talent Shohei Ohtani. The winner of Saturday’s contest will face whoever emerges from a highly-anticipated matchup between Puerto Rico and Italy in the semifinals.

Venezuela skipper Omar López made it official that Suárez will take the ball at the front of a rotation that also includes Eduardo Rodriguez and Antonio Senzatela. The 30-year-old southpaw will make his Red Sox debut in the next few weeks after signing a five-year, $130 million contract in the offseason following eight seasons with the Phillies.

Suárez threw 64 percent strikes while registering a 13 percent whiff rate and 20 percent CSW. His velocity also seemed to be up considerably on both his changeup and curveball, so it will be interesting to see if this was a result of one game or is a conscious change the Red Sox are making to the pitch shapes. Regardless, Suárez’s fantasy value hasn’t changed much from where it was back when he was with the Phillies.

Suárez hit a batter and allowed a single in the first inning, but induced a double play to get out of trouble. He struck out the first batter of the second inning before allowing a double and a 374-foot home run to Konnor Griffin on a hanging curveball. He struck out the next batter to end his afternoon. Suárez sat 90.3 mph on his four-seam fastball, and it would be calming for fantasy managers and Red Sox fans if he could get that up over 91 mph heading into the regular season.