Ranger Suárez keeps his cool and keeps the Pirates in check as the Phillies win again in extra innings

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.

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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 up much pressure to be crippled by. The left-handed pitcher seemed like he was destined for a no-hitter. 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, allowed a single to Michael Chavis, and then hit Ben Gamel to load the bases. It wasn’t ideal. But Suárez didn’t panic. After a mound meeting with catcher J.T. Realmuto, he 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 the one hit by pitch and a wild pitch. He threw 84 pitches, 54 for strikes. It was his best outing of the year, which is even more remarkable when you consider that he was placed on the 15-day injured list with low back spasms on July 3. Since July 16, when Suárez was activated off the IL, he’s looked like a different pitcher. He’s looked like the 2021 Ranger Suárez who had a 1.36 ERA over 106 innings.

Interim manager Rob Thomson had been watching Suárez’s pitch count, but said that after Saturday’s start, “the gloves come off.”

Suárez hasn’t an allowed an earned run since he made that first start in July. In the 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. His overall ERA now stands at 3.60. He went on the IL with a 4.33 ERA.

“Command has been the biggest thing,” Suárez said. “At the beginning of the season, I didn’t have great command of my pitches. But now that I feel that I do have it, it helps me go deeper into games and attack hitters better.”

For the second night in a row, the Phillies went into extra innings. In the top of the 10th , with Didi Gregorius as the automatic runner on second base, Matt Vierling reached first on a fielder’s choice. Gregorius scored on the play after Michael Chavis’ throw to third trying to nab Gregorius went into left field, giving the Phillies a 2-1 lead. Corey Knebel got the last six outs to get the win.

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In the bottom of the 10th, Oneil Cruz was the Pirates’ automatic runner, and with Knebel facing Bligh Madris to lead off the inning, Cruz was taking a generous lead. Knebel and Realmuto had just discussed Cruz’s base-running habits in the dugout. So, it wasn’t a surprise to Realmuto when all of a sudden, Knebel turned around and picked off Cruzfor the first out.

“I think [pitching coach] Caleb [Cotham] mentioned to him, ‘You might want to use an inside move at some point,’ and then he did and it worked,” Realmuto said with a laugh. “It was incredible. You don’t see that work too often.”

“I think [the inside move] has worked [for me] once,” Knebel said. “But that one was successful. Kind of caught me off guard. Glad I made a good throw.”

Madris grounded out to Gregorius, who made a fine diving stop for the second out. Cal Mitchell, who accounted for the Pirates’ one run with a solo homer off Jose Alvarado in the seventh inning, grounded out to first base to end the game. Knebel has now collected 14 straight scoreless appearances. His velocity has been up a few ticks — now sitting at around 96-97 mph — and he’s throwing his curveball more often and for strikes.

“He’s just throwing strikes,” Realmuto said of Knebel. “He was having trouble getting ahead of guys, and that’s when things kind of went haywire for him, but now he’s back in the strike zone attacking guys early. I think his velocity has ticked up a bit there from earlier in the season. He’s getting a lot of swing and misses with his fastball, so I think he’s able to use his curveball earlier in the count for strikes, which changes his counts for him big time. He’s just been electric lately.”

The Phillies went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Their best opportunity 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 then struck out in the next at-bat.

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In six innings, the Phillies collected five hits and just one run -- a solo homer from Realmuto -- off Pirates starter Mitch Keller, who entered the game with a 4.55 ERA,.

Castellanos went 0-for-4, striking out in the first inning with the bases loaded, grounding into a forceout in the third with two runners on, and striking out again in the eighth with a runner on first.

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.

After the game, infielder Johan Camargo was optioned to triple-A Lehigh Valley. The move was meant to make room for recently acquired infielder Edmundo Sosa.