Alex Cora making excuses for Ranger Suarez only makes his Red Sox start feel worse

For Philadelphia Phillies fans, Ranger Suarez's departure was a sad one. Watching him struggle with the Boston Red Sox during his first start of the year brought up mixed emotions. On the one hand, maybe it was an indication that the Phillies were right to let him walk. On the other hand, it's never easy to watch a former favorite scuffle.

Suarez got the ball for Boston for the second time this season on Sunday, and things still did not go well. The 30-year-old lasted four innings, surrendering six hits, two walks, and four earned runs in what would be yet another loss for the Red Sox. The worst part was that Suarez was staked to an early 4-0 lead, and the man who brought about the final blow for his day was Nick Castellanos with a two-run single in the fourth.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora acknowledged Suarez's struggles, but chalked up the poor performance by Suarez to a change of approach as Padres hitters got more aggressive early in the count ... and also noted that a Carlos Narvaez throwing error on a pick-off play didn't help.

"It was different for him [Suarez] in spring training. He didn't pitch that much in the [WBC], but he'll be the first one to say there's no excuse," Cora said. "He was making good pitches, and he didn't get hit hard in that inning. They made adjustments and started swinging at the first pitch. Got their hits, and then, you know, that happened."

All of that sounds pretty lame, and while Cora hinted at the real issue, he didn't dive in to address it fully.

Alex Cora's explanation of Ranger Suarez's struggles ignores a concerning trend the Phillies may have seen coming

Aside from the fact that the excuse was basically that Suarez was throwing hittable strikes early in the count, Cora's not quite right about San Diego not hitting the ball hard. He gave up an average exit velocity of 90.5 miles per hour in the outing, a below-average mark for a pitcher and well below the stellar 86.5 miles per hour average he yielded last year.

A string of two bad starts typically doesn't warrant a ton of concern, though it is noteworthy, but for Ranger, this has been going on for much longer. He struggled in spring training, didn't pitch well in the World Baseball Classic, and now is cold as ice to start the year. It's becoming a trend.

You can go back even further to find the route of Suarez's struggles. After a stellar first half of the season in 2025, he posted a 4.40 ERA in the second half and was consistently getting hit from July onward. Over 73 2/3 second-half innings, he allowed a .296 average, whereas he'd only yielded a .218 mark over 83 2/3 frames in the first half.

With that factored in, there's now an alarmingly large sample of Suarez getting hit and not being able to consistently get outs. Philadelphia seems vindicated in the decision to move on.

The only thing seemingly going well for the southpaw since shipping up to Boston has been his own defensive performance. He set a goal of winning a Gold Glove this season, and he's made some nifty plays so far. Even that seems a little damning, as his head-turning play came when he let Castellanos hit a 100.9 mile-per-hour scorcher off him, robbing everyone's least-favorite former Phillie of a single.

As long as what he does doesn't affect the Phillies, a large contingent of fans will be rooting for him to turn it around, but it seems as if the writing is on the wall. His five-year, $130 million contract will age poorly, and the team was right to move on.