Angels sticking with José Suarez for his next start, despite his 9.26 ERA

ANAHEIM — José Suarez will get at least one more chance to prove he should remain in the Angels’ rotation.

The left-hander has a 9.26 ERA after four starts, including a nightmarish outing in which he gave up seven runs on five homers on Monday. Nonetheless, Manager Phil Nevin said, in a bit of a surprising development, that Suarez will take his next turn, on Sunday in Milwaukee.

The Angels had a fairly simple solution available if they had seen enough of Suarez in the rotation. Left-hander Tucker Davidson, who has a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings, could have taken Suarez’s spot in the rotation, with Suarez working to get himself right while pitching out of the bullpen.

But Nevin said they weren’t ready to pull the plug on Suarez after 11-2/3 innings.

“It’s been four starts, I just don’t think that’s enough to yank somebody out of a job,” Nevin said on Tuesday. “I understand we’re three, four weeks into the season. There’s a shorter leash certainly. He needs to get better. He knows that. Right now I feel like he is still our best option when he’s right. And we’ve got to get him right. That’s part of our jobs.”

The Angels are still clinging to the hope that Suarez, 25, can be the pitcher he was in 2021 and 2022, when he posted a 3.86 ERA over 207-1/3 innings.

Last year he had a 6.35 ERA in his first four starts and was then sent down to Triple-A. Suarez had a 3.79 ERA over 14 starts after he returned, including a 2.81 ERA over his final 11 starts after adding a second changeup to his repertoire.

Nevin also said the Angels believe Suarez was tipping his pitches during the first three innings on Monday. They talked to him about it in the dugout and he responded by pitching two scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth.

Asked if Suarez could still work on whatever he needs to do, but while pitching out of the bullpen, Nevin said they decided that wasn’t the best course of action.

“I’m just not ready to move him out (to the bullpen),” Nevin said. “I don’t think it’s as productive for him to go out there. I gotta be honest. Right now we’re kind of start to start with him. I think he knows that. It’s not a scare tactic or anything like that. We all know the situation and he knows it. We’ve got to get better.”

BULLPEN USAGE

Nevin said he’s going to stick with his plan of being cautious with his reliever usage, even though one of the reasons they dropped a 10-inning game on Monday night was that four relievers were unavailable.

“I’m probably going to err on the side of caution more often than not,” Nevin said. “I care about those guys. It would kill me to hurt one of them. But at the end of the day, there’s gonna come a time when we’re gonna push them a little more. I just didn’t feel like in the middle of April is the time to do it.”

Generally speaking, relievers don’t pitch three days in a row, which is why left-hander Matt Moore and right-hander Austin Warren were not available on Monday night. Also, using a pitcher three out of four days is something teams try to avoid, although not quite as strictly.

Right-hander Carlos Estévez and left-hander José Quijada would each have been pitching for the third time in four days on Monday.

Over the past six days, only 11 relievers of the 230-plus in the majors have worked three times in any four-day span, according to Roster Resource.

NOTES

Outfielder Hunter Renfroe got a day off on Tuesday. He was the only player who had been on the Opening Day roster who had played in every game. Luis Rengifo got the start in right field. He has started this season in all three outfield spots, second base, shortstop and third base. …

The Angels will wear their City Connect uniforms on Wednesday and Thursday. They added Thursday’s game, which is a Shohei Ohtani start, to the schedule. …

Taylor Ward became just the second Angels outfielder to rob a grand slam since 2004, when Sports Info Solutions began tracking such catches. The other was Mike Trout on Aug. 7, 2016, against the Seattle Mariners.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 1-1, 3.38) vs. A’s (RHP Luis Medina, MLB debut), Wednesday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West,  830 AM