Categories: 2024 Postgame Recaps

Phillies move to 21 games over .500 with win over defending champions

Bryce Harper homered in the Phillies’ 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers. (Grace Del Pizzo/PhilliesNation)

Final Score: Phillies 5, Rangers 2

Ranger Suárez emerged victorious in the battle of Rangers.

The Phillies lefty battled through the dangerous Texas Rangers lineup that has been struggling lately and threw seven innings for the fifth time this season to earn his league-leading ninth win of the season. With his pitch count at 67 through four, Suárez breezed through an eight-pitch fifth and 13-pitch sixth to emerge out of the dugout for the seventh. He utilized his entire pitch-mix early and located well enough to strike out 10 batters in a game for the fourth time in his career. 2023 World Series MVP Corey Seager struck out three times in three at-bats against Suárez.

On the other side, Texas starter Jon Gray kept the Phillies quiet the first time through the order, but Kyle Schwarber and Alec Bohm were able to pull through with RBI singles. Bryce Harper scored the decisive run on a home run to center field in the bottom of the sixth.

Matt Strahm extended his scoreless innings streak to 19 innings after stranding the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the eighth. Nathaniel Lowe hit a 102.4 mph scorcher right to the left fielder Brandon Marsh to end the inning after Jeff Hoffman allowed a home run to Seager and two singles.

The Rangers had the tying run on base in the ninth with Marcus Semien and Seager up, but the birthday boy José Alvarado retired them both on strikes to end the game and earn his ninth save of the season.

The Phillies are now 21 games over .500 at 35-14. The win drops the reigning champs back down to a game under .500 at 24-25. The win on Tuesday is also the Phillies’ first win against the Rangers in more than ten years, when the Phillies outslugged the Rangers 14-10 on Opening Day in 2014. It was the longest active losing streak against a single opponent in baseball.

Highlights

Schwarber drove in the Phillies’ first run of the game on a single to right field that tied the game at one in the third inning.
Bohm put the Phillies up front in the fourth with an RBI single. He’s first among all National League hitters with 44 RBIs.

Harper took lefty Jacob Latz to dead center for a home run to make it 3-1.

I guess you can call these self-defense nachos.

Make that 44 RBIs for Bohm. He drove in an insurance run in the eighth to make it 4-2. Stott added another a batter later with a sacrifice fly.

Notes

Semien chased a curveball down in the zone and pulled it to left field for a double to put the Rangers up front 1-0.
The toughest at-bats of the night for Suárez came from Derek Hill. In his season debut, Hill saw three pitches in the first two at-bats, then eight in the third and recorded two hits and a walk against the Phillies starter.