PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ranger Suárez never had spent a Father's Day with his two young children. Stuck in Venezuela because of a complicated visa process, his wife never had left the country nor watched the left-hander pitch in person with the Philadelphia Phillies.
His family missed out on watching Suárez rise from a little-known teenage prospect that signed with the Phillies as an international free agent in 2012 to an ace and potential All-Star for the team in the National League with the best record.
No more.
At last, the family has been reunited in the United States.
Suárez picked up a no-decision and tossed six solid innings for the Phillies, who lost 5-2 to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday. The outcome almost didn't seem to matter for once to Suárez.
That's because his family cheered him on at Citizens Bank Park.
His wife, Joseany, and their two young children, Sofia and Dominick, sat behind the plate and gave Suárez all the reasons he needed to smile in the clubhouse following a start nearly a decade in the making.
“I am very excited to go home and see them, hug them, talk with them, play with them," Suárez said through an interpreter.
“I saw them before the game and it’s a totally different feeling. Very cool,” he said.
The 28-year-old Suárez, who was raised in Pies de Cuesta, Venezuela, has enjoyed a breakout season with the Phillies and helped lead them to a 49-25 record.
He is 10-1 with a 1.75 ERA — one of just four Phillies starting pitchers since the stat became official in 1912 to boast an ERA of 1.75 or lower through their first 15 starts.
Suárez has been touted as a front-runner to start the All-Star Game for the National League next month in Texas.
“If they call me for the All-Star Game, I would definitely go and bring my family,” he said. "That would be a great experience to play my first All-Star Game and bring them.”
Suárez and Joseany were married in the offseason in part to aid the process of helping her obtain the visa needed to bring the family to the United States. The couple share 6-year-old Sofia and 3-year-old Dominick. Joseany and the children watched the Phillies play on TV and cheered on Suárez as helped lead the team to the World Series in 2022 and the NL Championship Series last season. Suárez knows how much it would mean to everyone if the entire family could enjoy another postseason run.
“Every time I pitch, and even when I don’t, they always watch Phillies games and are cheering for us," he said. "The little one really likes it, they both do.”
The only part better for Suárez than having his family at the game was having it all together for the first time on Father's Day.
“Happy, very happy. We were excited because they arrived on Father’s Day,” he said. "Since they were born, I have never been with them on Father’s Day, so it made me very excited when they arrived at the house. Very happy.”
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San Diego Padres' Jackson Merrill rounds the bases after hitting a home run against Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ranger Suarez during the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies' Ranger Suarez pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Philadelphia Phillies' Ranger Suarez pitches during the second inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres, Wednesday, June 19, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Walgreens is finalizing a plan to fix its U.S. business that could result in closing hundreds of additional stores over the next three years.
CEO Tim Wentworth told analysts Thursday morning that “changes are imminent” for about 25% of the company's stores, which he said were underperforming. The drugstore chain currently runs more than 8,600 in the United States.
Wentworth said the company's plan could include the closing of a “significant portion” of those roughly 2,100 underperforming stores if they don't improve.
Company leaders said they’ve already closed 2,000 locations over the last 10 years. Overall, the company runs about 12,500 drugstores worldwide.
"We are at a point where the current pharmacy model is not sustainable and the challenges in our operating environment require we approach the market differently," he said.
Walgreens and major competitors like CVS and Rite Aid — which is going through a bankruptcy reorganization — have been closing stores as they adjust to an array of challenges to their businesses. They include include years of tight reimbursement for their prescriptions and rising costs for running their locations.
Plus, analysts say they’ve also been hit by growing competition from Walmart, Amazon and other discount retailers over sales of goods sold outside their store pharmacies. Consumers also tend to grow more price conscious when inflation rises, and drugstores generally have higher prices than those discounters.
“Our customers have become increasingly selective and price sensitive in their purchases,” said Wentworth, who joined the company last fall and has been conducting a review of its business.
Walgreens also has been closing VillageMD primary care clinics it had been installing next to its stores in order to grow its presence as a health care provider. The company had launched an aggressive expansion of those clinics under previous CEO Rosalind Brewer. But Walgreens said in March that it was reversing course and closing around 160 of the clinics.
Primary care clinics like the ones VillageMD operate tend to lose money their first couple years as they build a patient base and improve health. Jefferies analyst Brian Tanquilut has said the new clinics were burning a lot of cash and racking up losses.
But Wentworth said Thursday those clinics were now on a “clearer path to profitability.”
The CEO also said his company is talking to pharmacy benefit managers to “ensure that we are paid fairly” and working to grow other parts of its business like specialty pharmacy. That helps people with complex or chronic medical conditions.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. also reported that it missed earnings expectations and cut its annual forecast.
The company earned $344 million in its fiscal third quarter, with adjusted results totaling 63 cents per share. Revenue rose nearly 3% to $36.35 billion.
Analysts were looking for earnings of 68 cents per share on $35.9 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.
Walgreens now expects adjusted earnings to range from $2.80 to $2.95 for its fiscal year, which ends in August. That’s down from a forecast of $3.20 to $3.35 per share that it had narrowed in March.
Analysts expect $3.20 per share.
That guidance cut was not “overly shocking to us as the company now begins the next leg of its turnaround,” Leerink Partners analyst Michael Cherny said in a research note.
But the overall results surprised investors. Shares of the Deerfield, Illinois, company plunged 24% to $11.89 Thursday morning while the S&P 500 index rose slightly. Walgreens shares have already shed more than half their value so far this year.
FILE - A Walgreens store in Bradenton, Fla., is shown on Feb. 9, 2024. Walgreens is finalizing a plan to fix its business that could result in the closure of hundreds of additional stores in the next three years.(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
