Ranger Suarez flirts with no-hitter as Red Sox beat Marines 6-2 in series opener

After being swept by the Blue Jays in three games at Fenway Park, the Red Sox flew to Seattle where left-hander Ranger Suarez took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. 

Suarez’s dominant performance lead the Sox to it’s 30th win of the season, a 6-2 Red Sox series-opening victory over the Mariners.

“He was brilliant, yeah, brilliant,” interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters Suarez’s performance on Friday night. “It had no-hit feel, the way he was going.”

Suarez’s no hitter was broken up in the seventh inning after Mariners’ Josh Naylor doubled with one out. 

“Oh man, he was amazing,” Carlos Narvaez told NESN’s Jahmai Webster on the field postgame of catching Suarez. “I could smell the no-hitter.”

Suarez allowed just one hit, walked three and struck out five over 6 2/3 scoreless innings, where he threw 94 pitches, 55 for strikes.

“He works fast with Narvi, they looked in-sync, so I just felt like he mostly cruised through the outing,” Tracy said. “Started running out of bullets at the end, but he was – you couldn’t ask for more than what he did tonight.”

“Really, really good, really good overall,” Suarez told reporters through a team translator. “I had command of all of my pitches, and I was locating really well, so yeah, it felt really good.”

Suarez was perfect through the first 3 1/3 innings before issuing a one-out walk to Cal Raleigh in the fourth, the first Mariners baserunner of the night. He then retired the next eight hitters before running into trouble again in the seventh, when he walked Raleigh for a second time, surrendered a double to Naylor, and issued another free pass to Cole Young to load the bases. 

“When I was going into the seventh inning that was the first time that I thought about it, and once I realized that I was thinking about it, I knew it wasn’t going to happen,” Suarez said of the no-hit bid. “When you start thinking about it, it doesn’t have the same essence as the first six innings. Once you start imagining what could be, that’s when it doesn’t happen.”

It was Suarez deepest outing since throwing eight innings on April 17 and April 27, and his first scoreless start since May 14. Through 14 starts covering 76 2/3 innings, the left-hander owns a stellar 2.93 ERA.

When Suarez finally ran into trouble in the seventh, Tracy turned to Justin Slaten, handing him the first bases-loaded inheritance of his three-year major league career.

Slaten quickly jumped ahead of pinch hitter J.P. Crawford with two strikes before the count ran full. Undeterred, he went back to his cutter and froze Crawford for a called strike three, escaping the jam and preserving Boston’s shutout.

The Red Sox offense took advantage of Seattle’s unconventional two-starter approach.

The Mariners opened with Bryce Miller, who worked five innings and allowed one run on three hits while striking out seven without issuing a walk. The lone blemish came in the second inning when Caleb Durbin launched a solo home run, his second in as many games.

Boston’s offense was ecstatic to see Miller depart. 

Manager Dan Wilson turned to veteran Luis Castillo in the sixth, and the Red Sox pounced. Marcelo Mayer, who had initially been scratched from the lineup because of illness before ultimately starting, collected two hits and drove in three runs.

The Red Sox broke the game open with a four-run seventh inning. Ceddanne Rafaela led off with his 17th double of the season, advanced to third on Wilyer Abreu’s lineout to center and scored on a wild pitch.

Later in the inning, consecutive singles from Willson Contreras, Jarren Duran, Durbin and Mayer, combined with a throwing error by right fielder Dominic Canzone, helped Boston tack on three more runs. Narváez added a sacrifice fly before Canzone robbed Andruw Monasterio of a potential RBI hit to limit the damage.

Durbin and Mayer struck again in the ninth with back-to-back doubles to plate another run, giving the Red Sox 10 hits on the night. It marked the club’s first double-digit hit total since June 13 and just its fourth game this month with at least four extra-base hits.

Seattle spoiled the shutout bid in the ninth. Tommy Kahnle issued Raleigh’s third walk of the game before Julio Rodríguez crushed a two-run homer 408 feet to center, trimming Boston’s lead to 6-2. Kahnle recovered to retire the next three hitters and close out the victory.

The win snapped Boston’s four-game losing streak and improved the club to 30 wins, ensuring the Red Sox would not be the last team in the majors to reach that mark. That distinction now belongs to the Colorado Rockies, whom Boston will visit later on its road trip.

The Red Sox will look to secure the series on Saturday when left-hander Connelly Early (5-5, 3.81 ERA) takes the mound against Mariners right-hander Emerson Hancock (5-3, 3.28 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 10:10 p.m. ET on NESN.