Phillies’ Ranger Suárez pitches in front of his family for the first time, and it’s ‘beautiful’
PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies took a train home from Baltimore last Sunday, and it was a long day at the end of a long road trip that took them across the Atlantic Ocean and back. It had felt like a month since they had been home.
But, for Ranger Suárez, this had never truly felt like home. It is why, on Sunday evening, he raced to his Philadelphia apartment to savor the final hours of Father’s Day. He opened the door. He saw his wife and two kids. They were here. They were together in America for the first time.
Suárez started to kick a soccer ball indoors with his son, Dominick. His daughter, Sofia, joined them. Suárez started to pitch a foam baseball. They love it when he does that.
“We played all night,” Suárez said.
A few hours later, Suárez looked at the clock. “Hey,” he told them, “Dad’s got to go to work tomorrow.” They went to bed. They repeated it all on Monday.
“We woke up and we started playing the whole morning before getting here,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “I’m just the same way with them as I am (at the ballpark). It’s really nice for them to see their father do what he does for a living.”
So, on Wednesday, there they were at Citizens Bank Park. They found shaded seats behind home plate. Sofia, 6, pointed to the sky when her father induced a fly ball. Dominick, 3, clapped with every strike. They had never seen him pitch in person.
