From a six-hour drive to a four-inning save, Ricardo Pinto is back with the Phillies, and his buddy Ranger Suárez

Unable to fly from Rochester, N.Y., Pinto took a car service to Citizens Bank Park and arrived during Tuesday’s game. Soon after he was on the mound.

Phillies reliever Ricardo Pinto is congratulated between innings of the 9-4 victory over the Reds on Tuesday.Read moreCharles Fox / Staff Photographer

by Alex Coffey

Published April 3, 2024, 9:16 a.m. ET

On Tuesday night, Ranger Suárez sat in the rain in the Phillies dugout, as his friend, Ricardo Pinto, pitched a four-inning save in a 9-4 victory over the Reds to preserve his team’s bullpen. He was filled with pride. He met Pinto in 2012 when they were at the Phillies academy in Venezuela. They had since become close.

Pinto signed for $15,000 in 2011, and Suárez signed for $25,000 in 2012, and here they were, over a decade later, on the same big-league field. They used to talk as teenagers about their dreams of playing together for the Phillies. Now, they were living it.

The pitchers have had vastly different paths, but always stayed in touch. They lived in the same hotel in spring training in 2017 and 2018 and carpooled together to camp in the morning. When Pinto was called up to the Phillies in 2017, Suárez peppered him with questions about the big leagues.

A year later, Suárez made his major-league debut, a few months after Pinto had been traded to the White Sox for international bonus pool money. Pinto went on to pitch for the Tampa Bay Rays briefly in 2019 and then all over the world: in Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, and Taiwan.

“That didn’t matter,” Suárez said. “We would always talk. When he was in Asia, I would write him on WhatsApp. When he was in winter ball, I’d keep track of his outings and message him.

“And this year, I got to watch him in spring training. And now, I can watch him again.”

Pinto, 30, signed a minor-league contract with the Phillies in February. On Tuesday night, he was called back up to the big-league team, to replace reliever Connor Brogdon, who was designated for assignment, on the 26-man roster. It was a bit of a chaotic situation. Pinto was unable to fly from Rochester, N.Y., where triple-A Lehigh Valley was playing, so he had to take a car service.

The drive took six hours. The driver the Phillies hired was based in New York and was unfamiliar with the area, so he dropped him off in front of the Liberty Bell sign on Pattison Avenue, instead of the players’ entrance. The Phillies staff had to walk Pinto into the ballpark, during the game, past hordes of fans. No one recognized him.

He showed up around the fourth inning. Suárez saw him in the clubhouse and gave him a hug. Then, Pinto went into the cages and began to warm up.

He’d had a long day, but when he took the mound, you wouldn’t have known it. Pinto entered in the sixth and retired the first three Reds he faced on 14 pitches with two strikeouts.

He allowed a single in the seventh and a double in the eighth. A runner scored in the ninth when Pinto attempted to field a ball and slipped.

In all, he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with four strikeouts and no walks in four innings. He threw 73 pitches. Pinto spoke at length after the game about his mentality, and how he feels more mature than he was, but Suárez saw that transformation firsthand.

“He’s changed a lot,” Suárez said. “He’s more mature. He’s a veteran pitcher now. Obviously, he’s pitched all over. He has experience.

“Last year in Venezuela, in winter ball in the Caribbean Series, I think he really showed that he can return to a big-league organization. I’m so happy we brought him here again.”

According to the Phillies broadcast, it was Pinto’s performance in the Caribbean Series — a 0.84 ERA over 10⅔ innings — that impressed senior adviser Pat Gillick. Gillick told president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski about it, and Pinto was signed shortly after.

Now, 1,675 days after his last big-league outing, he is back in a place that feels like home.

“I was super happy to be back here,” Pinto said. “To have friends like Ranger Suárez, who is one of my best friends in baseball, and José Alvarado, and a lot of the minor leaguers who were with me, it feels great.”

Suárez is going to take good care of him.

“He’s staying with me tonight, in my apartment in Philadelphia,” Suárez said. “He’s my little brother.”

He paused, turned to Pinto, and smiled.

“Actually, he’s my older brother,” he said. “Because he’s 30, and I’m 28.”