Categories: 2022 Postgame Recaps

Ranger Suárez outpitches Cy Young candidate as Phillies defeat Padres

Ranger Suarez had a strong outing (Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire)

Final Score: Phillies 6, Padres 2

The Philadelphia Phillies were on a three-game losing streak. San Diego Padres right-hander Joe Musgrove had held them hitless through 4 ⅓ innings. They trailed 1-0. Time remained, but a fourth straight loss was more than in the cards.

Three outs later — plus change — the Phillies led 6-1. In what felt like the blink of an eye, they had jumped on the National League Cy Young Award candidate in Musgrove for seven hits and six runs, and all of a sudden, they held a comfortable lead on a team that had entered the day tied for first in a stacked National League West.

That’s how it goes sometimes. The Phillies made good on that spark of energy, preserving the lead and earning a series-opening win. They’re 37-34 on the season and 16-5 in June.

June Schwarber And J.T. Combine For Five In The Sixth

The Phillies had three extra base hits in the sixth inning. Two of them came from guys who absolutely needed them. One came from a guy who absolutely didn’t — but it was great for the brand.

Bryson Stott entered his leadoff at bat in a 1-for-30 tailspin. He laced a leadoff double into right field, his first extra-base hit since June 8.

Then came Kyle Schwarber, who entered Thursday in a stretch of the opposite kind: a 1.073 OPS in the month of June. His 409-foot two-run home run was his 20th of the season, a staggering nine of which have come this month. (By the way — it’s still June 23.)

It gave him a share of the National League home run lead with 20 and, more importantly, his Phillies a 3-1 lead:

Consider the June Schwarber brand alive and well.

The month has not been so kind to J.T. Realmuto, who carried a .299 June slugging percentage into San Diego. But the sixth inning was just as kind to Realmuto as it was to Schwarber.

Harper and Castellanos each lined one-out singles to bring Realmuto up with a chance to break it open. That he did:

It was his first home run since May 26. Hey, no time like the present.

Hoskins Taketh, Hoskins Giveth

The Phillies had a chance to crack the scoreboard early against Musgrove, but a mental mistake by Rhys Hoskins proved a rally-killer.

With Hoskins on first after a leadoff walk, Bryce Harper lined a single over C.J. Abrams into right field. But Hoskins had started heading back to first after the ball got through — presumably thinking Abrams had caught it — and that was all the time Jurickson Profar needed to throw him out at second on the force out:

Hoskins’ blunder prevented the Phillies from putting two on with one out in the inning.

Maybe it was a wake-up call. (The game started at 9:40 p.m. ET, after all.) In the second inning, Hoskins had a chance to make up for the heads-down play, and he capitalized.

C.J. Abrams chopped one softly over the head of Ranger Suárez, much too slow for the Phillies to turn two — or so one thought. After Alec Bohm picked it up and threw to first across his body for out number one, Hoskins — sans hesitation — fired to Bryson Stott at second. José Azocar had overrun the bag, and Stott slapped the tag on him for the ever-so-conventional 5-3-4 double play:

Call it net-zero, because we’re feeling generous.

Ranger And Seranthony Put Out The Fire

Rob Thomson decided to roll Suárez (88 pitches) out for the eighth inning, the Phillies leading 6-1. Suárez got some soft contact, but they wound up as base hits, though the second may have really been foul:

In any case, the Padres had runners on second and third with no outs. Suárez got Profar to fly out, too shallow to score the run, even against Castellanos.

Seranthony Domínguez, as he often does, finished the job. He traded a run for an out with a Jorge Alfaro grounder before striking out Hosmer to keep the Padres down four:

Brad Hand put the finishing touches on the win with a 1-2-3 ninth against his former team.

Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance

Joe Musgrove: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 2 HR, 88 pitches (63 strikes)

Talk about a complete 180. Musgrove was consistently painting the corners in the early innings, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth. Hoskins’ baserunning error contributed to that, but still — Musgrove was so good, people on Twitter were pronouncing the game “over” when the Padres took a 1-0 lead. (Wait, that happens every time.)

The Phillies pounced on him out of nowhere in the sixth, tagging him for five of their seven hits and five of their six runs. It was the most runs Musgrove has allowed in a game all season, tripling his previous high of two.

Ranger Suárez: 7.1 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 94 pitches (61 strikes)

Suárez settled in along with the Phillies’ offense. Including the last out of the fourth inning to leave the bases loaded, he retired 10 of 11 hitters at one point in the middle innings. A large key to his success, as it tends to be for the southpaw: walks, or a lack thereof. He issued only two free passes on Thursday — one with first base open to bring up the sub-Mendoza Abrams. He didn’t miss a ton of bats, only striking out three, but he induced enough soft contact to get by. His ERA stands at 4.23.

Phillies Nugget Of The Game

After Didi Gregorius broke up Musgrove’s no-hitter in the fifth, Odúbel Herrera singled him home to put the Phillies on the board. It broke an 0-for-22 stretch:

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