Ranger Suárez keeps Blue Jays ‘off balance’ in series-opening shutout of Toronto
Schwarber’s second-inning homer, in addition to seven shutout innings from Suárez, helped power the Phillies to a win over the Blue Jays.
Ranger Suárez doesn’t throw the hardest.
In an era where some pitchers are regularly blazing past triple digits on the radar gun, a fastball that clocks 92 mph puts Suárez in the 12th percentile of major league baseball. In his start on Friday against Toronto, his velocity actually trended lower than normal, with his sinker averaging 90.2 mph.
But it hardly matters when you have the type of command and pitch mix that Suárez does. The Blue Jays had won 12 of their last 14 games before arriving at Citizens Bank Park, but Suárez cooled them off for seven shutout innings in the Phillies’ 8-0 win.
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“It’s hard to describe, but there’s some guys that could throw 100 [mph] and you see the ball good, and there’s some guys that throw 90 [mph] and you don’t see the ball well,” said Trea Turner. “When you’re watching on TV, you’re like, it doesn’t make sense. But he’s just one of those guys where everything looks the same out of his hand.”
Suárez leaned on his sinker, throwing 12 for called strikes, while his changeup and cutter both induced a lot of soft contact.
“Changeup had a lot of depth to it, breaking ball had a lot of depth to it. He just keeps people off balance,” said manager Rob Thomson.
Suárez departed the mound to a standing ovation following his longest outing of the season so far. He used an efficient 94 pitches, holding the Blue Jays to just four singles. He did not allow a runner to advance past first base until the seventh inning, when two runners reached on a single and a walk. But Suárez stranded them after Myles Straw lined out to right field.
After a poor first start of the year on May 4 when he was charged with seven runs, the Phillies left-hander has been dominant. In his seven starts since that initial outing, Suárez has an ERA of 1.17.
“I know what I’m capable of when I’m healthy. I know I’m capable of doing great things,” Suárez said through a team interpreter.
A four-run second inning, capped by a homer from Kyle Schwarber, gave him plenty of early run support. J.T. Realmuto started the rally by drawing a walk, before back-to-back doubles from Otto Kemp and Brandon Marsh. While Kemp was thrown out at the plate on Marsh’s hit, Turner then drew a walk to bring Schwarber to the plate for a three-run blast.
While Schwarber has historically dominated June, with a .912 career OPS in the month, he had hit a cold spell through the first two weeks this year. But Toronto starter Kevin Gausman left a fastball over the plate for Schwarber, who sent it 410 feet to straightaway center.
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“I thought it was a solid effort throughout, on all sides of the ball,” Thomson said. “Our at-bats were really good. We put a lot of pitches on Gausman early, four doubles, home run. [Max] Kepler looks like he’s starting to swing the bat. J.T. is having good at-bats. Kemp is having good at bats; Marsh. So the bottom of the lineup did a lot of good things tonight.”
Joe Ross and Taijuan Walker each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
The Phillies scratched across another run in the sixth inning with three straight singles. In the eighth, they tacked on three more on three hits, a walk, and a sacrifice fly. A nifty slide from Bryson Stott helped him avoid the tag at the plate as he scored from second base on a Turner single.
Every member of the Phillies lineup reached base safely at least once.
They also put on a clinic on defense. Kepler made a diving grab in left field to end the first inning. In the third, Turner made a sliding, backhand grab on the outfield grass, and his throw was in time to prevent the leadoff hitter from reaching first.
“We’ve definitely been on the other side of it this year. And it just feels like when you hit balls hard, and the other team’s diving all over the place, you just feel a little defeated in the dugout,” Turner said. “When we can do that on our side and get those outs for the pitchers and keep them at bay, I think it’s big for them, probably more so than we notice at the time.
“But that can really be the difference in the game.”