Around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, with the Phillies leading the Rockies 5-0 in the bottom of the eighth inning, you probably received some variation of this message from a friend:
“Think he’ll leave him in for the ninth?”
By 8:32 p.m., you probably responded with some variation of this message:
“He better f**king leave him in.”
And by 8:35 p.m., Ranger Suarez was walking out to the mound with Kid Cudi’s Mr. Rager blasting and 35,000 Phillies fans losing their minds. He–manager Rob Thomson–had indeed left Suarez in the game to pitch the ninth inning.
Suarez was at 89 pitches, and hadn’t thrown many of those under any duress. “Pretty stress-free 89 pitches, so I felt pretty good about him going back out there,” Thomson said after the game.
Some of the pitches in the ninth were a little stressful to those hoping to see Suarez finish off his gem. Rockies designated hitter Charlie Blackmon led off the inning with a single on a 2-1 count. Suarez rebounded to strike out shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, but after third baseman Ryan McMahon singled sharply to right field, the Philllies lefthander’s pitch count stood at 103.
Jeff Hoffman was warming in the bullpen. For a moment, fans held their collective breath and looked toward the Phils’ dugout to see if Thomson would bring in the right-handed reliever to face right-handed Rockies batter Elias Diaz.
Thomson did not.
Suarez struck out Diaz, then induced a ground ball that the pitcher fielded with his trademark serenity to end the game. Suarez’s final line: 9 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 112 pitches (79 strikes).
Suarez now has a 3-0 record through four starts, with a sparkling 1.73 ERA. The Phillies’ pitching staff as a whole currently sports a 3.48 ERA, second-best in the National League. One gets the impression that, if the bats can get going, Philadelphia’s professional baseballers will win a lot of games this season.
And on Tuesday the bats got it done. Though they failed to score more than five runs for the 17th time in 18 games, the Phillies’ position players looked solid. J.T. Realmuto crushed a 413-foot home run in the first to give the team a 2-0 lead. Trea Turner had two knocks, raising his batting average to .310. Bryce Harper had two hits of his own, driving in Turner with a sixth-inning double and plating Johan Rojas with an eighth-inning homer.
“[Harper’s] been hitting the ball hard a couple times a night, he just hasn’t had anything to show for it,” said Thomson. “Tonight he did.”
The game was probably the Phils’ most complete, well-rounded win of the 2024 season. That includes the defense. Check out this web gem from Brandon Marsh:
The Fightins are now 10-8 overall to start the year, two games behind the Braves in the NL East and well-positioned for a little early-season surge. They’ll try to finish off a sweep of the Rockies on Wednesday, with Cristopher Sanchez (0-2, 3.52 ERA) facing RHP Ryan Feltner (1-1, 3.38 ERA) at 6:05 p.m.
Following that matchup, the 2-14 White Sox will visit Philadelphia for three games. Chicago will miss Suarez’s next start, but they’ll have to deal with Spencer Turnbull, Zack Wheeler, and Aaron Nola.
Things are looking up in South Philly.
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