Ranger Suarez delivers as Red Sox get back on track with 5-1 win over Royals

The calendar is getting closer to October, and Ranger Suarez is beginning to look like the pitcher the Red Sox will want on the mound when they get there.

Suarez delivered seven strong innings for the second consecutive start Saturday, allowing just one run as Boston snapped its three-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over the Royals at Fenway Park.

“He was brilliant,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “(He) attacked the zone, used his offspeed very effectively, got people out front, got in on the hands. He was really, really good.”

The left-hander allowed five hits, struck out eight, which was his most since June 29, and didn’t issue a walk. Combined with seven scoreless innings against Baltimore in his previous outing, Suarez has allowed one run over his last 14 innings.

“I felt like all my pitches were working,” Suarez said via the team translator. “Like I said before, that little trick in my mechanics helped me to be able to locate my pitches and to be able to put it where I wanted. Obviously, the one mistake that you guys all saw and made me pay for it. But at the end of the day, I felt very good with my stuff today.”

The southpaw improved to 7-4 with a 3.33 ERA. This was his ninth quality start of the season and second in a row. 

For a Red Sox team beginning to think seriously about how its rotation will line up for October, the timing couldn’t be much better. Suarez has a 1.48 ERA over 11 career postseason appearances and appears to be rounding back into form after an uneven second half.

With Sonny Gray likely positioned for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, Suarez has strengthened his case to be one of Boston’s other starters if, as increasingly appears likely, the Red Sox open the postseason at Yankee Stadium.

For much of Saturday, Suarez and Kansas City starter Randy Dobnak matched zeroes.

The first three innings took just 36 minutes, with Bobby Witt Jr.’s infield single in the first representing the only baserunner for either team. Kansas City finally broke through in the sixth when rookie catcher Carter Jensen drove a 108.4 mph shot 386 feet over Pesky’s Pole.

Jensen, who had two doubles against Gray on Friday, has quietly put together an impressive season at 23 years old with 24 homers and 31 doubles.

Dobnak retired the first two hitters in the bottom of the sixth before Mickey Gasper and Adley Rutschman kept the inning alive with consecutive singles.

Kansas City turned to left-hander Anthony Gose, and Wilyer Abreu made the Royals pay, hammering a 2-2 fastball off the bottom center-field wall. It scored both runners on base and put Boston ahead, 3-1.

“It feels like these few days it’s been like waiting for a two-out hit, a big swing or a go-ahead swing and had a lot of chances at it,” Tracy said. “Then, we get that swing there, and all of a sudden everybody kind of takes a breath and we started extending in the seventh and the eighth, which was good to see. But that was a huge swing, the biggest swing in the game.”

It was another significant swing in what has quietly become an impressive offensive season for Abreu. He leads the American League in doubles and is tied for the Major League lead with 36. Abreu’s 64 extra-base hits rank him second in the American League and sixth in the bigs. 

Rutschman, playing his second game since receiving a cortisone injection in his hyperextended elbow, finished with two singles. He has five multi-hit games since joining the Red Sox despite batting .203 following the trade.

Boston added some breathing room in the seventh when Caleb Durbin ripped an RBI single off the Green Monster to extend the lead to 4-1. 

Durbin was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, leaving him with just two extra-base hits over his last 33 games, but the hard contact was an encouraging sign.

Durbin had his hands full defensively at the hot corner when Witt came to the plate.

The Royals star hit three grounders toward third in his first three at-bats, essentially turning each into a race between Durbin’s arm and Witt’s speed. Witt beat out the first for an infield single before stealing second for his 40th stolen base, but Durbin got him at first in each of the next two matchups.

Nick Sogard provided Boston’s final run in the eighth, doubling home Trevor Story after Story had doubled.

Garrett Whitlock struck out the side on just 11 pitches, including Witt, continuing a dominant season out of the bullpen. Whitlock owns a 1.84 ERA with 57 strikeouts over 49 innings and 50 appearances despite two trips to the injured list.

Boston then turned to Aroldis Chapman with a four-run lead to finish it.

Anthony Seigler, recalled from Triple-A Worcester on Friday, appeared to injure his hand during a sixth-inning at-bat. Isiah Kiner-Falefa replaced him defensively, and it remains unclear whether Seigler will miss additional time.

Saturday’s win improved Boston to 81-68 and brought the club back to .500 at Fenway at 37-37. The Red Sox haven’t exactly dominated a homestand against two of the American League’s weaker teams, but a victory Sunday would allow them to finish the six-game stretch at 3-3.

The Royals on the other hand have lost five of their last eight games and eight of their last 12 since the end of August. 

The game took only two hours and 17 minutes.

Boston and Kansas City will finish the series Sunday, with first pitch moved from 1:35 p.m. to 3:05 because of rain in the forecast. Payton Tolle (9-6, 3.15 ERA) will face Royals left-hander Noah Cameron (9-8, 3.93).

The Red Sox are off Monday before beginning their final road trip of the regular season Tuesday in Texas. Patrick Sandoval, Jake Bennett and Gray will start against the Rangers, according to Tracy, with Brayan Bello returning to a long-relief role.