Ranger Suarez throws seven scoreless innings as Red Sox shut out Orioles

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 4, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

When the Red Sox signed Ranger Suarez to a five-year, $130 million deal in free agency this past offseason, they did so with nights like Friday in mind.

With less than a month remaining and the club looking to shore up its playoff position after a rocky week, Suarez took the mound and was absolutely brilliant. The left-hander delivered seven shutout innings while outdueling Baltimore Orioles right-hander Shane Baz, helping ensure Mickey Gasper’s first-inning home run stood up in the club’s 1-0 win.

Suarez’s performance was especially encouraging given how shaky he’s been throughout the second half, and if Friday was a preview of things to come then the Red Sox should feel good about their chances against anyone in a short playoff series.

When Gasper was called up in mid-August he embarked on such a rampage at the plate that by month’s end he was showing up on lists with all-time greats like Ted Williams, Barry Bonds and Aaron Judge. That didn’t save him from being optioned after Roman Anthony and Trevor Story came back, but his return to Triple-A wound up lasting just one day, and ever since coming back he’s shown no signs of slowing down.

Gasper homered again in the top of the first inning, giving him eight home runs in his last 16 games. The 30-year-old has homered three times in five games this week dating back to his latest call-up on Monday, and overall his OPS since Aug. 17 is now 1.525.

Not bad for a guy who had just two home runs over his first three MLB seasons prior to this recent stretch.

Much like early in Thursday’s series opener offense was hard to come by for both clubs outside of the first inning. Suarez turned in his best effort in weeks, shutting down the Orioles over seven scoreless innings while working his way out of a couple of potential jams in the third and fifth innings. In each of those the Orioles got two men on with two out, but Suarez drew some manageable contact to escape unscathed.

Baz fared similarly. Besides the Gasper home run he retired seven of the first eight men he faced and survived a third-inning jam after an error allowed the Red Sox to get men at the corners with one out.

Baz didn’t give the Red Sox much else, and he came out after allowing a one-out single to Trevor Story in the seventh trailing 1-0 despite allowing only four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

The Red Sox got a golden opportunity as soon as Baz came out, loading the bases with two outs after reliever Alex Hoppe walked Anthony and hit Gasper. But Adley Rutschman flew out to end the threat, preserving Baz’s one-run performance.

Suarez wrapped up his outing with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, finishing with five hits and a walk allowed with three strikeouts over 91 pitches. He also snapped a streak of eight consecutive starts with fewer than six innings dating back to June 29, his last full start before suffering a groin injury that landed him on the IL for a little over two weeks in July.

The Red Sox stranded two more men in the eighth and finished the game 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and with 10 men left on base, but Garrett Whitlock drew a double play to punctuate a scoreless eighth and Aroldis Chapman locked down his 32nd save of the season to complete Boston’s 15th shutout victory of the season.

There was also a brief dust-up after the eighth inning where Orioles outfielder Blaze Alexander got heated after his involvement in the double play, resulting in both benches and bullpens clearing, but the incident didn’t escalate any further.

The Red Sox (77-65) have now won two straight to start the four-game series after coming in having lost six of their prior eight games. Boston can clinch the series win with one more victory over the weekend, and Sonny Gray (16-4, 2.82) will look to make that happen on Saturday when he goes up against Chris Bassitt (6-4, 4.97). First pitch is 7:05 p.m.