PITTSBURGH — A few hours before the Phillies' 2-1, 10-inning win over the Pirates on Saturday night, Ranger Suárez played a game of Uno with reliever Seranthony Domínguez and first-base coach Paco Figueroa. Music was blasting in the clubhouse, and Suárez was shuffling the cards and shaking his shoulders to the beat.
Most pitchers will say little — or nothing at all — on the days they start. They’re locked in, often studying the lineup they’re about to face. Suárez does plenty of studying, but he doesn’t keep to himself. He chirps at his teammates. He dances. He laughs. This levity is one of the keys to his success. He treats his starts like any other day, so when he gets on the mound, it feels like, well, any other day.
When Suárez finds himself in a tough situation, like he did in the fourth inning Saturday night, he isn’t crippled by the pressure, because he hasn’t built much pressure up. The left-handed pitcher seemed like he was destined for a no-hitter early Saturday night. After three innings, he had thrown just 38 pitches, and 30 of them were strikes. He hadn’t allowed a hit or a walk.
Then, in the fourth inning, things went awry. With two outs, he walked Ke’Bryan Hayes, then allowed a single to Michael Chavis, and then hit Ben Gamel to load the bases. It wasn’t ideal. But Suárez didn’t panic. He had a mound meeting with catcher J.T. Realmuto and induced a flyout to secure the out he needed. His fifth inning looked like this: strikeout, groundout, strikeout.
Suárez finished his night after six innings, allowing just three hits, one walk, with one hit by pitch and one wild pitch. He threw 84 pitches and 54 strikes. It was easily his best outing of the year, which is even more remarkable when you consider that Suárez was placed on the 15-day injured list with low back spasms on July 3. Since July 16, when he was activated off the IL, he’s looked like a different pitcher. He’s looked like 2021 Ranger Suárez, who had a 1.36 ERA over 106 innings pitched.
Suárez hasn’t an allowed an earned run since he made his first start back, on July 16. Over those 16 innings — three starts — he’s allowed just 11 hits and two walks with 16 strikeouts. Before that, he had a 3.77 ERA for the month of June, a 4.85 ERA for the month of May, and a 4.42 ERA for the month of April. It’s been quite a turnaround.
Another late-inning finish that ends in a win
For the second night in a row, the Phillies went into extra innings. In the top of the 10th inning, with Didi Gregorius as the automatic runner on second base, Matt Vierling reached first base on a fielder’s choice that scored Gregorius to give the Phillies a 2-1 lead. The Phillies didn’t score any more runs after that, but it proved to be enough thanks to some savvy defense and lockdown pitching in the bottom of the 10th.
Oneil Cruz was the Pirates’ automatic runner on second base, and while Knebel was facing Bligh Madris for the at-bat of the inning, Cruz was taking a generous lead. All of a sudden, Knebel turned around and picked off Cruz to remove the Pirates’ automatic runner and secure the first out. Madris grounded out to Didi Gregorius, who made a diving stop for the second out. Cal Mitchell grounded out to first base to end the game.
Offense struggles with runners in scoring position, yet again
The Phillies went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Their best opportunity to score came in the first inning, when Kyle Schwarber walked, Rhys Hoskins singled, and Realmuto walked to load the bases for Nick Castellanos with one out. But Castellanos struck out, and Darick Hall also struck out in the next at-bat.
There wasn’t much action after that. The Phillies collected five hits and one run off of Pirates starter Mitch Keller, who entered the game with a 4.55 ERA, and the Pirates’ bullpen, which has an ERA of 4.64 — the second-highest in baseball.
Castellanos found himself in the middle of most of those opportunities. The right fielder went 0 for 4, striking out in the first inning with the bases loaded, getting a forceout in the top of the third with runners on first and second, and striking out again in the top of the eighth with a runner on first.
Realmuto with his 10th home run
The Phillies could have been shut out if it weren’t for Realmuto, who hit his 10th home run of the season in the top of the sixth inning. Realmuto has now hit at least 10 home runs in eight straight seasons since 2015, one of 10 major league players to do so.
