Robert Suarez Continues Storybook Rise With Dominant Postseason Performance

Image credit: Robert Suarez (Photo by Rob Leiter/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES — Robert Suarez waited longer than most for the opportunity to pitch in Major League Baseball.

Now that he’s here, the 31-year-old rookie is making the most of it.

Suarez entered in the sixth inning and escaped two critical jams against the vaunted Dodgers offense, helping the Padres hold on for a taut 5-3 victory in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. The series is tied 1-1 and moves to San Diego on Friday.

Suarez, who signed a two-year, $11 million contract with the Padres after pitching for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan, has pitched in three of the Padres’ five postseason games and has yet to allow a run. That comes after he posted a 2.27 ERA in the 45 appearances in the regular season to work his way from an untested rookie into one of the Padres’ top setup men.

“It means a lot to be able to play here in the big leagues,” Suarez said through team interpreter Danny Sanchez. “It’s the best baseball in the world. To be able to help my teammates, for me, that means a lot.”

With Suarez playing an integral role, the Padres bullpen has pitched 11.1 scoreless innings over its last three games, helping the club upset the Mets in the Wild Card Series and pull even with the heavily favored Dodgers in the Division Series.

“He has really pitched himself, ” Padres manager Bob Melvin said, “into as prominent role as we have.”

Suarez’s winding journey took him from Venezuela to Mexico and on to Japan before he got a chance to pitch in MLB.

He wasn’t a prospect on anyone’s radar growing up in Venezuela. While most top international prospects sign at 16, he worked as a security guard at a supermarket into his early 20s and pitched on the weekends in local amateur and independent leagues around Caracas.

As Suarez grew into more arm strength in his 20s, a former teammate from one of those leagues brought him aboard to play for Saltillo in the Mexican League. Suarez dominated with a 1.71 ERA and 23 saves in 33 appearances and parlayed that into a contract with Softbank in Japan’s major league, Nippon Professional Baseball. Over the next six years, Suarez bounced back and forth between the Japanese majors and minors, had Tommy John surgery and moved between starting and relieving. He blossomed after signing with Hanshin in 2020 and became one of NPB’s most dominant closers, recording 67 saves over two seasons with the Tigers.

By the time Suarez opted out of his deal to sign with an MLB club after the 2021 season, he was one of the top players available in Japan. For a former security guard whose first pro season didn’t come until he was 24 years old in the Mexican League, it was a surreal and storybook rise.

“He was dominant, man,” said Padres righthander Nick Martinez, who pitched in Japan from 2018-21 and faced Suarez. “He’s a very special player. I don’t think a lot of guys talk about him. I think he’s very underrated. What he can do with the baseball is very special.”

 

 

 

Suarez reiterated that point on a national stage Wednesday night.

The hard-throwing righthander relieved Yu Darvish with runners on the corners and no outs in the sixth inning and the Padres nursing a 4-3 lead. He promptly pumped a 101 mph fastball past Justin Turner for a strikeout for the first out of the inning and followed with a tailing, 89 mph changeup that induced a 4-6-3 double play from Gavin Lux to end the inning and escape the jam.

Sent back out for the seventh, Suarez allowed the Dodgers to put runners on second and third with one out but came through when it mattered most. With the tying and go-ahead runs on base and a sold-out Dodger Stadium crowd roaring, Suarez got Trea Turner to chase a 92 mph changeup for a groundout to third base and induced an inning-ending lineout from Will Smith, keeping the Padres ahead and silencing the home crowd.

When Jake Cronenworth followed with a home run in the top of the eighth to extend the Padres lead, it drove home just how much Suarez holding the line turned the game in the Padres favor.

“The demeanor, the way he came into the game, was huge,” Padres catcher Austin Nola said. “Attacked hitters, got ahead. He made strike to ball pitches, ball to strike pitches, got guys to chase. I mean, all around just beautiful job on his part.”

That demeanor, poised and unwavering in the face of intense adversity, was formed precisely during Suarez’s years bouncing from country to country .

It has also become his defining characteristic.

Suarez blew the save in his major league debut this season, allowing three runs without recording an out against the D-backs on Opening Day. He rebounded to hold opponents scoreless in 15 of his next 21 appearances.

His season was interrupted by right knee inflammation that required surgery in early June. He came back two months later and pitched to a 1.48 ERA the rest of the season.

Now, Suarez is pitching some of the most important innings of the Padres season and delivering. After everything he’s been through, it’s just the latest chapter in his rewarding and unlikely journey.

“I’m fortunate to be in the playoffs with this team and I’m happy to be here now where we are,” Suarez said. “It’s been super exciting, and hopefully it continues.”