The Red Sox had another installment of regularly-scheduled programming: the pitching staff gives them a chance to win and the offense offers another lifeless performance. Boston scored just one run in the eighth inning and could not match Philadelphia in the 3-1 loss.
Kyle Schwarber changed the game with one swing to move Philadelphia to 12-4 under interim manager Don Mattingly.
Here’s three takeaways from Thursday’s series finale.
He may have missed time with hamstring issues, but Ranger Suarez is pitching like the guy the Red Sox paid for this month. He’s tallied 9 ⅓ scoreless frames to start the month of May.
Against his former club, Suarez struck out eight Phillies through 5 ⅓ innings Thursday night. In fact, the left-hander hasn’t allowed a run since April 22 against the Yankees. Since then? He’s posted 17 ⅓ innings of shutout ball across his last three starts.
KYLE SCHWARBER IS INEVITABLE
The Phillies slugger offered another sour reminder of the shortcomings of Boston’s lineup. Home runs change games and the Red Sox just don’t hit enough of them.
Schwarber launched his 18th home run of the year, his seventh in seven games, off of Tyler Samaniego in the eighth inning to break the scoreless tie. Boston deployed a left-on-left matchup. Just not one good enough to hold Schwarber in the yard on Thursday night.
One of the sport’s greatest home run threats is fully in powerful form by mid-May.
The Red Sox have just one series win at Fenway Park to their names through the opening six weeks of the season. That came in early April when Boston took two of three games from the Milwaukee Brewers.
