Ranger

Suarez

It’s Suarez’s third scoreless start in last four outings, but this came with a few more swings and misses than the other two. It’s his sixth career 10-strikeout game. Incredibly, four of those have come in his last 14 starts (the other three with the Phillies down the stretch last season). He totaled two in his first 111 starts. The gem makes Suarez 2-2 with a 3.09 ERA this season. He’ll have his next start come Sunday at home versus the Astros.

Suarez had good velocity and decent command tonight, but Amed Rosario hit a three-run homer in the first and Giancarlo Stanton doubled twice off him. That he was lifted in the fifth after just 71 pitches was because he was due to face Stanton for a third time, and manager Alex Cora just didn’t think that was a very good idea. Suarez dropped to 1-2 with a 4.00 ERA. He’ll make starts in Toronto and at home against the Astros next week.

Over his last two games, Suarez has allowed zero earned runs in 14 innings while striking out 10 and allowing only 10 baserunners. The lefty made his longest start of the season on Friday, but was still hit with a no-decision after the Tigers and Red Sox took a scoreless game into extra innings. With another strong outing, Suarez has now lowered his ERA on the season to 3.22 and has a 1.07 WHIP. We’ll see if he can keep this strong stretch going in his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday against the Yankees.

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.