Suarez solid in long relief vs. Mariners

ANAHEIM -- It’s easy to forget that Angels left-hander José Suarez is still only 23 years old.

Suarez was a former top prospect, but struggled in his first taste of the Majors in 2019, posting a 7.11 ERA in 81 innings and followed that up by surrendering 10 runs in 2 1/3 innings in 2020. But Suarez has fared well in long relief this season and turned in another solid outing in a 6-2 loss to the Mariners on Thursday night at Angel Stadium.

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Suarez threw 2 2/3 innings in relief of right-hander Griffin Canning, allowing one run on three hits with three strikeouts. Suarez now has a 2.31 ERA with 11 strikeouts, five walks and one homer allowed over 11 2/3 innings in four relief appearances this year.

“Really good,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “I like the kid. He's got good stuff. Good curveball, good fastball with good carry on it. The thing about José is he has a really nice mound presence. He doesn't get rattled. He was good again. It wasn't surprising."

Maddon said the plan is to keep Suarez in his current role as he continues to build confidence, but he believes Suarez has the stuff to be a starter again in the future.

"He could be a starter, no question,” Maddon said. “He can start here. He's still very young. I still think he's in stage two and is more of a survivalist. He needs to believe he really belongs here and can do this, which is stage three. Once he does that, he can take off. The more we put him out there in this role and he has success, the more it'll expedite this process. But he definitely is a Major League pitcher and he could be here a long time."

Suarez relieved Canning with one out in the fourth after Canning served up a three-run homer to Jake Fraley on a 2-2 slider that caught too much of the plate. Suarez did his best to keep the Angels in the game and got out of the inning unscathed.

He escaped a jam in the fifth that was keyed by a strange play at third base after a leadoff double from Kyle Seager. Seager attempted to steal third and was initially ruled out by third-base umpire Jordan Baker, even though third baseman Anthony Rendon had dropped the ball. Seager was caught in a rundown and tagged out, but the umpires ruled that Seager was affected by the missed call by the ump, which led to the rundown, and he was awarded third base.

Maddon wasn't pleased with the ruling, but Suarez struck out Jarred Kelenic and José Godoy to strand Seager at third and end the inning.

“I was just arguing that, ‘Doesn't the runner have to be more vigilant right there and not just come off the bag?’” Maddon said. “That was the argument. There's times that runners are called safe, but then he becomes out, but this one the runner was called out and then becomes safe. I'm not challenging the interpretation of the rule but I've just never had that happen to me like that."

Suarez had the chance to escape damage again in the sixth but gave up a two-out RBI double to J.P. Crawford. He got Mitch Haniger to ground out to end the inning and his night was done after having thrown 57 pitches. His last outing was Sunday, when he threw three scoreless innings on 53 pitches and picked up the win in relief against the A's.

“He was actually getting better,” Maddon said. “He just made one mistake to Crawford.”

Suarez registered an impressive 11 swings-and-misses against Seattle, including five with his curveball, four with his fastball and two with his changeup. He leaned on his curveball more than usual, as he had previously been using his change as his primary secondary pitch.

"He did an awesome job coming in and giving us the length I couldn't give us,” Canning said. “So that was good. He works hard and is putting in work, developing some of his pitches. So it was nice to see him put up some length."