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PHILADELPHIA – Ranger Suarez has done a bit of everything this season for the Philadelphia Phillies. Right now he’s keeping them in the playoff race.
Suarez threw a four-hit shutout, Bryce Harper hit a homerun and the Phillies continued their playoff push, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 on Saturday for their fifth straight win.
The Phillies started the day 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the eastern NL. Philadelphia is visiting the Braves in a three-game series starting Tuesday.
“We really needed it” said director Joe Girardi. “We had a number of guys who weren’t available today outside of the reliever box so we would have had to rely on some inexperienced kids if Ranger hadn’t done what he did.
Suarez (7-5) allowed just four singles, scored none and struck out seven on strikes in his first full Major League game. He didn’t allow a runner to pass first base and only faced one hitter more than the minimum, which put the Pirates off balance and generated a lot of weak contact.
From the pen to the rotation in August, the 26-year-old left-hander had never pitched more than 6 2/3 innings in a match before this outing. But he was efficient with his 97 pitches and seemed to get stronger as the game progressed, striking out four straight batters in the seventh and eighth innings.
It has been an eventful year for Suarez, who was late for spring training due to travel issues related to COVID-19. This delayed the start of his season.
When he first joined the Phillies in May, he was a multiple innings reliever. He then moved on to more powerful roles and was even closer to the squad for a short time before joining the rotation.
“I always try to go out there and do my best to attack the hitters,” Suarez said through a team performer. “Today I felt I had good control over my throws, more than usual, especially my slider.
“When you’re a starting pitcher, you have to have a third pitch. When I was a reliever, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I had it, but I wasn’t paying attention. When they told me I was going to start this year, I wanted to start working on it and today that helped me a lot. he said.
Harper hit his 34th homerun and Matt Vierling hit his first major league homer as the Phillies (81-74) improved to a record seven of .500 games of the season.
Vierling and Harper both hit solo homers in the third against Will Crowe (4-8). Vierling also chose and walked.
“It was pretty good” said Vierling. “It had been a while since I touched one and some of the guys were giving it to me here and there. .. The way my swing works, if I catch the ball on the barrel, it lets me hit it hard. At the moment, things are going pretty well. “
Harper hit 35 home runs in 2019, his first season in Philadelphia. No Phillies player has hit more than 35 home runs in a season since Ryan Howard (45) and Jayson Werth (36) in 2009.
Brad Miller added an RBI in the fifth inning to give Suarez an insurance run.
Pittsburgh (57-97) has lost three straight games.
INDEPENDENT LOVE
The Pirates lost nine of 10 to Philadelphia after winning three games at Citizens Bank Park in 2017.
FOLLOWING
Pirates: RHP Max Kranick (1-3, 7.28) will depart for Pittsburgh in the series final with Philadelphia.
Phillies: Due to injuries and ineffective starters at depth, Philadelphia hosted a bullpen game every five days in September. They are set to play another in their 2021 regular season home final on Sunday against Pittsburgh. It’s possible Adonis Medina (0-0, 1.59) could get his second start in the major leagues after receiving the call in the Phillies relievers’ last game.
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