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 3 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 allowed 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.
“All things considered, coming off the hamstring, he looked sharp,” said interim manager Chad Tracy. “Velocity was up, did what he wanted to with the ball in and out and down [in the zone], just like last time. A really, really good outing.”
Suarez added: “To be honest with you, it was like a regular game. Obviously, I know they were my old teammates, but I wanted just to get it deep into the game. I knew that my [pitch] count was limited, so I wanted to take advantage of that.”
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. Suarez hasn’t allowed a run in five of his eight outings this season. He threw 76 pitches (50 strikes) in his scoreless outing against the Phillies on Thursday.
“We had felt like even prior to that last inning, [Suarez] was starting to fatigue a little bit,” said Tracy of pulling Suarez. “Based on the fact that he hadn't thrown 11-12 days, it felt like that was the right time to cut it.”
Suarez added: “[It's a good feeling] when you're able to command all your pitches and throw [them] for strikes, and be able to throw it how you want it,” Suarez said of his recent successful stretch. “Yes, I think I felt very good at the last three starts.”
Unfortunately, Suarez was locked into a duel with Jesús Luzardo, who allowed four hits and kept Boston off the scoreboard during his six-inning start. That gave the Phillies enough time to get something going, which came on a two-run homer off the bat of Kyle Schwarber in the eighth, his MLB-leading 18th of the season.
“It was definitely fun going against Ranger,” said Luzardo. “He’s like a brother to me. So he was having a good time and made it tough for us, but it was fun going against him.”
Suarez spent 13 years in the Phillies organization and eight of those with the big league club, where he appeared in 187 games, starting in 119 of them. He had a 3.38 ERA with Philadelphia and won 53 games, striking out 705 batters over 762 innings.
After spending his entire career with Philadelphia, Suarez signed a five-year, $130 million deal with Boston in the offseason. He struggled in his first two starts with his new club, allowing four earned runs in each while not making it through five innings. However, he has not allowed a run in any of his last three starts and in five of his last six outings.
“I think this could have gone two ways -- really good or really bad because of the days that I missed,” Suarez said. “So, obviously it was a good outing, but it was a bad day because we lost.”