PHOENIX -- On nights like Friday when he smacked two home runs to power the Diamondbacks past the Cubs, 8-1, it’s easy to forget just how close Eugenio Suárez's tenure in Arizona was to coming to an end last season.
On June 30, Suarez was hitting .196 and the Diamondbacks were contemplating whether or not to designate him for assignment. No one wanted to because Suárez is a beloved teammate, one of the truly good guys in the game.
Before anything could happen, though, Suárez started to hit the ball a little better. He made a slight mechanical adjustment at the plate and added more high-velocity batting practice to his routine.
Suddenly, not only were hits falling for him, they were flying out of the ballpark.
In July he hit 10 homers and had a .333 batting average. August added another five homers and 24 RBIs to his total and in Sept.-Oct. he hit nine homers and had a slash line of .347/.385/.644.
In a season that had started so miserably, Suárez finished with 30 homers and 101 RBIs.
And despite what seemed so unlikely in June, the Diamondbacks picked up Suárez's $15 million option for 2025 after the season.
The winter, it seems, has done nothing to cool him off. He parlayed a strong spring into a hot start to the year, homering in Thursday night’s opener. Only one other Diamondbacks player has ever started a season with three homers in the first two games: Luis Gonzalez, who did it in 2001 en route to 57 homers and a World Series championship.
Where this season takes Suárez and the Diamondbacks remains to be seen, but he’s certainly off to a promising start.
After losing on Opening Day, the Diamondbacks found themselves behind 1-0 heading into the bottom of the second. After Pavin Smith led off with a single, Suárez followed with a towering homer to left off Jameson Taillon.
Two innings later, Suárez once again hit a two-run homer as part of a three-run inning that gave the Diamondbacks a 5-1 lead.
"It’s awesome to be back and do something like that,” Suárez said. “Obviously it feels great to have a start like this and like I always say, I just want to keep going and take whatever baseball will give to me.”
Suárez has punished the Cubs dating back to his days with the Reds in the NL Central. He now has 34 career home runs against the North Siders -- his most against any club.
"Those were just middle pitches that a good home run hitter did what he does really well,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. "Those were mistakes and he made us pay for them."
Suárez is the guy in the clubhouse always smiling, encouraging his teammates -- regardless of whether he’s in a funk like he was at the beginning of last year or red-hot like he’s been ever since.
“It's fun to watch,” said starter Merrill Kelly, who was the beneficiary of all the offensive support on Friday. “He looks like second-half Geno last year. So obviously if he can do what he's doing right now all season, like he did in the second half last year we'll definitely be in business.
"Geno's the man, even when he was hitting whatever he was hitting one-something in the first half, compared to three-something, and hitting homers. That guy's the same guy every day coming into this clubhouse. He does the same thing every day, same attitude every day, always smiling, always happy. So anytime somebody like that is having success, it's always fun to watch.”