MIAMI – When lefthander Ranger Suarez came off the injured list on August 24 and threw five strong innings against the Royals, allowing one run and striking out six, the sigh of relief from the Phillies executive suite, clubhouse and dugout seemed roughly Equivalent to a Category 2 tropical storm off the coast of Florida.
With Taijuan Walker then in the process of pitching his way from the rotation to the bullpen and the No. 5 spot in the rotation unsettled, to say the least, having an at-the-top-of-his-game Suarez to go with Cy Young candidate Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Cristopher Sanchez, put the Phillies in an enviable position going down the home stretch and into the postseason.
That sense of quiet elation lasted exactly six days.
His next time to the mound Suarez, who was 10-1 with a 1.81 earned run average through his first 13 starts, was unhittable through the first two innings ... before being tagged for four runs on five hits, including two homers, in the next two before heading for the showers.
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Everybody insisted there was no physical reason a pitcher who had been sidelined twice already with lower back issues had lost it so quickly, so completely. So, yeah, the just-turned-29-year-old had something to prove when he took the mound Thursday night against the Marlins at LoanDepot Park.
And the Phillies exhaled. Again.
Suarez pitched five shutout innings on three hits and two walks in what turned out to be an uncomplicated 5-2 Phillies win. He struck out four.
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There are still questions to be answered. His velocity was down a little, about two miles an hour on his fastballs. Manager Rob Thomson lifted him after just 82 pitches, meaning the bullpen was called on to fill up four more innings. But it was unquestionably a step in the right direction.
“He pitched,” Thomson said, stressing the second word. “Him and Wheeler and Nola. Those guys know how to pitch when they don’t have their good fastball. They know how to change speeds and get chases. I think he used more of his secondary pitches than he usually does just because he didn’t have the velo. He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing out there.”
Suarez was operating under a soft 90-pitch limit, which is why he came out when he did.
“I didn’t want to send him back out for one hitter and I felt like he was good right there. Next time he can probably go to 95, almost 100.”
The manager conceded that he had more than a passing interest in seeing how Suarez would bounce back. “I was,” he said. “He pitched better tonight than he did the last time, so we’re making progress.”
Suarez was also happy with his outing. “My breaking balls were working today so why stop throwing them?" he said. “That’s why we work so hard in between. To leave the bad starts behind and create new things, better things and make them happen.
“You’re not always 100 percent with your velocity. That’s what I had and I worked with it and it worked well and we got the results we wanted. I feel good and I think I’m headed (to being able to pitch deeper into games).”
The Phillies have also turned themselves around. They’ve now won five straight and 10 of their last 12 and extended their lead over the second-place Braves to 8 games in the National League East while reducing their Magic Number to 15.
After sweeping an abbreviated two-games series in Toronto against the last-place Blue Jays, they picked up where they left off against the last-place Marlins before an announced crowd of 9,355. That is not a typo, by the way.
They had Miami starter Adam Oller on the ropes early, including having the bases loaded with one out in the fourth without scoring, but clung to a 1-0 lead before finally building a cushion by scoring four in the sixth, knocking Oller out in the process.
Second baseman Bryson Stott is getting hot again after a midseason slump. He had an RBI single in the first and then sparked a four-run rally in the sixth with a second-deck home run to right-center. In his last 17 games he’s 17-for-56 (.304) with three homers.
“His at bats lately have been really good,” Thomson said. “He’s really grinding at bats and every once in awhile he’ll get out in front and hit one high to right. It’s nice to see him hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
Said Stott: “I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot right now. To me it’s less about feeling and more about where the ball’s going. If I’m using the whole field, hitting line drives to left, that’s when I’m at my best.”
His homer was quickly followed by a walk to J.T. Realmuto and a single by Brandon Marsh that convinced Marlins manager Skip Schumaker to bring lefty Anthony Veneziano in to face lefthanded-hitting Kody Clemens.
Clemens dove both runners home with a double to left. Johan Rojas reached on an infield single, advancing Clemens who then scored when Veneziano bounced a wild pitch past catcher Nick Fortes while Rojas was in the process of stealing second.
After that, it was pretty much all over but the shouting. Which came from behind the first base dugout when Matt Strahm was one out away from recording his third save of the season and may sound familiar.
E-A-G-L-E-S. . .
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