It Suarez Good to See You, Ranger

For the second night in a row, a high-profile player showed Red Sox Nation just what he is capable of doing when all is right. Like Adley Rutschman on Thursday, Ranger Suárez took the mound on Friday night and delivered the type of performance that we thought we would see just about every fifth day all season long.

Unfortunately, injuries and inconsistent performance have reduced Craig Breslow’s top offseason free-agent acquisition to a five-inning, hope-and-pray, back-end-of-the-rotation guy, as opposed to the top-end guy he was billed as.

On Friday night in Baltimore, Ranger flipped a switch and hopefully gave Chad Tracy and Andrew Bailey a peek behind the curtain at what is to come down the stretch.

Suárez was brilliant, completing seven innings and scattering five hits and one walk while allowing no runs. He toed the slab in the bottom of the first up 1-0, thanks to what seemed like the nightly home run by Mickey Gasper, and appeared determined that it would be all he needed.

He retired the Orioles in order in the first with precision and aggression in the strike zone and never wavered from that approach for the entirety of the outing. In two of his seven innings, he allowed two Orioles to reach base, but unlike in his previous starts, they came with one or more outs already in the inning, and it never seemed like there was much of a threat of Baltimore scoring.

Ranger pitched with complete control and confidence, which has been sorely lacking since his return from the IL at the end of July. This performance marked the first time he completed six innings, let alone seven, since the end of June and was as important to the bullpen as it was to Ranger’s own psyche.

Let’s hope this is…