Phillies news and rumors 7/7: Should there be concern about Ranger Suárez?

Ranger Suárez struggled against the Braves Saturday. (Jeff Robinson/Icon Sportswire)

Ranger Suárez struggled in Saturday evening’s Philadelphia Phillies loss to the Atlanta Braves, allowing six hits and five earned runs over five innings. It was the second consecutive disappointing start for Suárez, who allowed 10 hits and six earned runs over 4 2/3 innings pitched in a June 30 win over the Miami Marlins.

So should there be any level of concern about Suárez after two bad starts in a row?

Obviously, when a pitcher allows 11 earned runs over two outings, it’s worth monitoring. As MLB.com‘s Todd Zolecki noted, this is the first time in Suárez’s career that he’s ever allowed five or more runs in consecutive starts.

At the same time, Suárez rebounded to strike out seven batters, after failing to strike anyone out in his previous outing, the first time that had ever happened in his career. Had Suárez failed to miss bats for the second start in a row, there would have been more of a reason for concern.

As is, hey, it wasn’t a good outing, but lots of people give up home runs to Marcell Ozuna and Ozzie Albies.

Manager Rob Thomson did acknowledge during last homestand that the Phillies need to be mindful of the workloads of both Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez. Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are accustomed to throwing 200 regular season innings, give or take, at this point. Suárez and Sánchez are not.

Suárez missed time last season with both a left elbow strain and a right hamstring, so he only logged 125 innings. In 2022, he had a brief injured list stint as he dealt with low back spasms. He still managed to set a career-high in innings pitched in 2022 at 155 1/3. But he’s thrown 108 innings through his first 18 starts of this season, meaning he’s on pace to easily set a new career-high in frames pitched before the postseason arrives. The Phillies do need to be careful not to overwork Suárez in the regular season.

A month ago, skipping a turn through the rotation for Suárez or just pushing his start back would have been a possibility. With both Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull on the injured list, it isn’t now. Unless there’s an injury, Suárez is going to be starting next Friday at Citizens Bank Park against the Oakland Athletics.

But there is something to be said for just keeping an eye on Suárez. Maybe even if he’s pitching well next Friday, have him go six innings instead of seven. After he pitches in the All-Star Game — he still has a 10-3 record with a 2.58 ERA, so even if he’s not the starter he’s likely headed to Texas — the Phillies can get creative. They could have Suárez start the fourth or fifth game after the All-Star Break, rather than pushing him back out their right away because he’s been their best starter this season.

So there is a bigger picture workload to monitor here. Also, Suárez probably wasn’t going to pitch the entire season with an ERA under 2. Many of the starting pitchers in the Hall of Fame never did that. But if the Phillies manage his workload properly, he’s still going to be a weapon in the postseason, whether he’s starting first, second or third in the rotation.

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