Ranger Suárez returns with five shutout innings as Phillies thump Marlins, 10-0

MIAMI — Ranger Suárez hadn’t thrown a pitch in a big league game since June 29, but he didn’t waste any time in getting back to his normal self. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say he got back to his 2021 self, when he posted a 1.36 ERA over 39 games.

Suárez pitched as well as he has all season in the Phillies’ 10-0 win over the Marlins on Saturday, allowing only four hits and no walks with four strikeouts.

He was economical, finishing his afternoon at 64 pitches, of which 46 were for strikes, in five innings. His sinker and his four-seam fastball both touched 95 and 94 mph a few times, which is a higher pitch velocity than average for him this season. For a pitcher who had a 4.33 ERA when he was placed on the injured list with lower back spasms, his return to action went about as well as the Phillies could have hoped.

“Well, he spotted his fastball,” said interim manager Rob Thomson. “He threw his curveball a lot more than he has in the past and it was really effective. And it’s a good pitch for him. As the game went on, it looked like the changeup started getting more depth. He was getting some swing-and-misses on it. So, I thought he was, especially in those last three innings, he was outstanding.”

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With Zach Eflin still on the 15-day injured list with right knee soreness, and starter Zack Wheeler coming off an uncharacteristically shaky outing, and not much starting pitching depth to draw from, a dominant stretch from Suárez would be a big help to the Phillies. It’s hard to imagine that he’ll suddenly return to his 2021 self through the remainder of the season, but even a fraction of that output would make an impact.

“It’s huge [that he’s healthy]. It’s huge,” said Thomson. “Because we saw what he did last year, the starting rotation really picked us up. And it looks like he’s close to being back to where he was.”

After a gutsy performance in Friday night’s 2-1 win, the Phillies (48-43) notched another big win on Saturday, clinching the series win over the Marlins with Sunday’s game still to play. Their offense exploded — racking up 15 hits with four home runs — and the bullpen put together another shutdown performance.

Thomson said on Friday night that he knew his offense was capable of scoring more than two runs a night, and that he expected the Phillies to start doing so soon. His words proved prescient. The Phillies didn’t score until the fourth inning, but once they started, it was hard for the Marlins — including starter Max Meyer, who was making his major-league debut — to get them to stop.

J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber, Didi Gregorius, and Rhys Hoskins all went deep. Schwarber’s homer was his 29th of the season and broke an 0-for-21 streak. Gregorius’ home run, a two-run shot to right field in the top of the eighth, was his first homer of the season, a promising sign from a player who has struggled to show much power of late.

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The Phillies went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position. They were not only hitting the ball hard, but those balls were falling in for hits (unlike in Toronto). They looked like a different team offensively than they did when they were swept by the Blue Jays. In that two-game series, the Phillies scored just five runs on nine hits.

Realmuto, in particular, has stood out as one of the Phillies’ more consistent hitters recently. He has gone 5-for-8 against the Marlins in this series and is batting .320 over his last seven games. He said the three days of rest he got by not attending the series in Toronto (because he is unvaccinated) helped, but it doesn’t paint the entire picture.

“I felt pretty good that last game in St. Louis as well,” Realmuto said. “My swings felt like they were coming around. I had two days to think about those swings. Just tried to carry that on into this series.

“It’s more feel-based and approach-based for me. Something clicked for me that last day in St. Louis. I saw the ball better and my swings felt better, and I tried just to stay with that consistent approach that worked for me there, and it’s worked the last couple of games.”

In his first appearance since being activated off the COVID-19-related injured list on Friday, reliever Connor Brogdon looked strong. He induced a line out, a fly out, and a foul out, using only seven pitches (five of them strikes), in a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Brogdon hadn’t pitched in a major league game since June 22.

JoJo Romero, who was making his first big-league appearance since being placed on the 60-day injured list on May 18, 2021, also pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Romero, recovered from Tommy John surgery, induced two groundouts and had a strikeout in the ninth to end the game. He said he’d been thinking about this moment since he came out of surgery 13 months ago.

“Running onto the field, there were a lot of emotions going on,” Romero said after the game. “When I got out of surgery, I remember when I woke up they asked me how I feel. I told them I’m ready to throw a bullpen.”