FORT MYERS, Fla. — When Ranger Suarez came to the dugout after the top of the second inning, he was up to 34 pitches, 11 shy of his 45-pitch limit for the day. Alex Cora called Suarez over and issued the Red Sox starter a friendly challenge.

“Alex told me if I get out of the third inning and recorded three outs with 11 pitches or less, he’d take me out to dinner,” Suarez said via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez.

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Exactly 11 pitches later, Suarez walked off the mound giving his manager a knowing smile.

The Red Sox left-hander enjoyed a strong second outing of the spring, allowing one run over three innings in Sunday’s 8-7 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. Suarez allowed two hits with no walks and two strikeouts, and he threw 29 of his 45 pitches for strikes.

“Felt good, better than my first start,” Suarez said. “I felt good with all my pitches today and it was a good one for me.”

Suarez sent the Orioles down 1-2-3 in the first before running into trouble in the second. But after allowing a single and a double to put two men in scoring position with nobody out, Suarez drew three consecutive groundouts to limit the damage to one run.

Then, in the third, Suarez’s hopes of a quick inning looked doomed when speedy outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. reached on an error. But the lefty drew a flyout on two pitches and Bradfield was subsequently caught stealing on a great throw and tag by Carlos Narvaez and Caleb Durbin.

Finally, on the 45th pitch of his outing, Suarez struck out Blaze Alexander swinging with a nasty slider, drawing cheers and laughs from his teammates in the dugout.

Besides marking his second outing in a Red Sox uniform, Sunday was also Suarez’s last before joining Team Venezuela ahead of the World Baseball Classic. The left-hander said he will join his countrymen in Miami later this week and is excited for the tournament.

“Looking forward to meeting all my teammates and representing our country and talking to them and having a good time,” Suarez said. “I’m very happy to be able to do that and I feel like we’re in a good spot.”

But in the meantime, what restaurant are Suarez and Cora going to?

“I don’t know but an expensive one so he can pay for it,” Suarez joked.

Asked for his side of the story postgame, Cora said he doesn’t owe Suarez anything.

“No, no, I do not, because it was 10 pitches in that inning and he threw 11,” Cora said.

But Suarez said it was 11?

“Nah, nah, it was 10 or less,” Cora said. “He forgot his Spanish.”

Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, shown here after scoring a run in Thursday’s game against the Rays, hit a home run and a double on Saturday against the Orioles. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Contreras goes deep

Willson Contreras continued to show off his impressive power Sunday, blasting a double off JetBlue Park’s Green Monster in the first inning before clearing it entirely with a 426-foot three-run home run in the fourth.

The first baseman finished the day 2 for 2 with the homer, three RBI and two runs scored, and he will now join Team Venezuela having batted .426 with a 1.563 OPS through the first week of spring training action.

Caleb Durbin went 2 for 2 with a walk and an RBI double and Kristian Campbell went 1 for 3.

Campbell gets robbed

Campbell probably should have gone 2 for 3 with a double or a triple, but he was robbed of extra bases thanks to a ridiculous catch by Bradfield in deep right field.

Enrique HOW?! pic.twitter.com/KDtJpBZnld

— Orioles Player Development (@OsPlayerDev) March 1, 2026

Stepping to the plate in the bottom of the second, Campbell roped a scorching line drive 106.9 mph off the bat to deep right field. But Bradfield, regarded as one of the fastest players in baseball, closed the gap and made the running grab.

According to Statcast, Campbell’s liner had an expected batting average of .550.

Chapman, Slaten struggle

Sunday was a rough day for the Red Sox bullpen, and neither Aroldis Chapman nor Justin Slaten completed their scheduled inning.

Chapman entered the game in the fourth and struck out the leadoff man, but then allowed a walk and a single before drawing a pop out to end his outing after 18 pitches.

Similarly, Slaten entered in the fifth and struck out his first batter, but then he threw away a soft grounder to the mound by Bradfield that allowed the outfielder to reach third. Slaten then drew an RBI grounder for the second out but followed with a walk and a double before being lifted with 24 pitches. Both inherited runners came around to score, leaving Slaten with three runs over 2/3 of an inning.

Cora said he wasn’t concerned about their underwhelming lines.

“Chappy was working on his slider, Slaten the usual,” Cora said. “Honestly I don’t pay too much attention to that, as long as they’re healthy and their stuff looks good, it doesn’t matter the results.”

No doubt about it

If there’s an equivalent to a bat flip for an ABS challenge, we saw it from Wilyer Abreu on Sunday.

During his second at bat to lead off the bottom of the third, Abreu took a 3-2 sinker that was up and in but initially called strike three. Abreu immediately challenged, dropped his bat and was halfway to first base by the time the Automated Ball-Strike system overturned the call for ball four.

Coming up next

Johan Oviedo will take the mound for the Red Sox on Monday when they make the trek up to Dunedin to face the Toronto Blue Jays. Ryan Watson, Kyle Keller, Seth Martinez and Jeremy Wu-Yelland are all scheduled to pitch for the Red Sox as well.

Cora said Jake Bennett will start Tuesday night’s exhibition against Team Puerto Rico. Garrett Crochet will pitch Wednesday against the Yankees and Sonny Gray will make his next start Thursday on the back fields.