There may be no one on the Phillies who embodies the ebbs and flows of a 162-game baseball season better than pitcher Ranger Suarez. Because when he is on his game, he is simply spectacular. And because of that, when he’s a little off, it seems all that much worse.
Well, sit back and enjoy the goodness of Suarez because he appears to be in the middle of one his lights-out streaks.
The lefthander completely muffled the Washington Nationals Sunday at Citizens Bank Park and also muffled many who were starting to build a little anxiety over some inconsistent outings.
Suarez recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts in his seven innings of work and allowed just three hits as the Phillies beat the Nationals, 3-2. It was the second straight double-digit strikeout performance for Suarez, who had 10 in his win over the Seattle Mariners Monday.
“It was about getting ahead in the count and attacking the hitters early,” said Suarez. “Getting ahead of the count helps in getting a lot of chase because they think that any pitch can come through the strike zone. I’ve had great command of my pitches for the last two outings and I think that’s one of the keys that have made me have good starts.
“It’s about learning from the rough starts and lately I’ve been watching videos from the past starts before the last outing that I had and I didn’t think I was myself on the mound. It looked like I was battling myself on the mound. I think it’s just relaxing a little bit more and enjoying the game a little bit more.”
It’s more enjoyable for everyone when you consider the past two outings by Suarez has resulted in those 21 strikeouts, no walks and two wins.
It could have been a little easier for the Phillies, who chased Washington starter Jake Irvin after just 2 1/3 innings. But they left 10 on base throughout the game and never added on to the early 3-0 lead.
They got that thanks to backup catcher Rafael Marchán.
In the second he doubled home Nick Castellanos and Bryson Stott with two outs on a liner to right-center field. Then in the third, he coaxed a bases-loaded walk off reliever Shinnosuke Ogasawara on an eight-pitch at-bat.
The Nationals mounted a threat in the eighth inning when Jose Alvarado came in for the Phillies. He gave up a leadoff single to Brady House and proceeded to walk Robert Hassell III and Jacob Young. Thomson called for Tanner Banks out of the bullpen and he got a double-play ground out from James Wood, which scored a run, and a lazy flyout by CJ Abrams to end the inning.
“Huge,” said Thomson of Banks’ performance. “Alvy didn’t have it today. We were trying to get through the game without using Banks but we had to do it to win the ballgame. He did a heck of a job. He’s throwing more strikes, the slider’s better. A lot of confidence. He’s been huge for us.”
Orion Kerkering pitched the ninth, as normal closer Jhoan Duran had pitched the previous two games, and gave up a home run to Andres Chaparro before retiring the final two batters and helping the Phillies to their seventh win in their last nine games.
And it was enough to hold on for the win on Marchán’s big day.
“He does a lot of cage work for his offense,” said Thomson of Marchán. “It’s tough for him because he’s a switch-hitter and he has to do extra work from both sides. He does a lot of work with the catching coaches and he studies a lot. He was in his locker yesterday, when he wasn’t catching, and working a game plan for yesterday’s game even though he wasn’t catching. That’s how tuned in he is. I think part of it is just natural and part of it is that J.T. (Realmuto) has kind of groomed him a little bit. Big day today. All three of our RBIs, a couple of key blocks behind the plate. People don’t like to run on him because they know he can throw. For the fact that he doesn’t play everyday, that’s a tough thing to do. And he’s doing a great job of it.”
While the Phillies took two of three from Washington to improve their record to 76-54 and upped their lead in the NL East to seven games as the Mets lost to the Braves, they did see a streak come to an end.
Kyle Schwarber went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks. It snapped a streak of 15 consecutive series for Schwarber with a home run.
But the story Sunday was Suárez, who seems to be back to his early-season form as he upped his record to 10-6 and lowered his ERA to 3.07.
“The velocity has jumped up a little bit but so has the command,” said Thomson. “And that’s really the thing for him. When he can get the ball to his glove side he’s really effective. Everything else plays off of that. And that’s what he’s doing right now.
“I think it was probably just a little bit or normal fatigue that every pitcher, every starter goes through over the course of the year and it looks like he’s recovered.”
It sure does look that way.
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