PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Ranger Suarez has done a little bit of everything this season for the Philadelphia Phillies. Right now, he’s keeping them in the playoff race.
Suarez pitched a four-hit shutout, Bryce Harper homered and the Phillies kept up their playoff push, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-0 Saturday for their fifth straight win.
The Phillies began the day 1 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the NL East. Philadelphia visits the Braves in a three-game series beginning Tuesday.
“We needed that really bad,” manager Joe Girardi said. “We had a number of guys that weren’t available today out of the bullpen, so we would have had to rely on some inexperienced kids if Ranger didn’t do what he did.”
Suarez (7-5) allowed just four singles, walked none and struck out seven in his first major league complete game. He didn’t permit a runner past first base and faced only one batter more than the minimum, keeping the Pirates off-balance and generating a lot of weak contact.
Moved from the bullpen into the rotation in August, the 26-year-old lefty had never thrown more than 6 2/3 innings in a game prior to this outing. But he was efficient with his 97 pitches and seemed to get stronger as the game wore on, striking out four consecutive batters in the seventh and eighth innings.
It’s been an eventful year for Suarez, who was late arriving to spring training because of travel issues related to COVID-19. That delayed the start of his season.
When he first joined the Phillies in May, he was a multiple-inning reliever. He then shifted to more high-leverage roles and was even the team’s closer for a short time before joining the rotation.
“I always try to go out there and do my best to attack hitters,” Suarez said through a team interpreter. “Today I felt I had good command of my pitches, more than usual, especially my slider.
“When you are a starting pitcher, you must have a third pitch. When I was a reliever, I wasn’t paying much attention to it. I had it, but I wasn’t paying attention to it. When they told me I was going to start this year, I wanted to start working on it and today it helped me a lot,” he said.
Harper hit his 34th home run and Matt Vierling hit his first major league homer as the Phillies (81-74) improved to a season-best seven games over .500.
Vierling and Harper both hit solo homers in the third off Will Crowe (4-8). Vierling also singled and walked.
“It felt pretty good,” Vierling said. “It had been a little while since I hit 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 allows me to hit it hard. Right now, it’s going pretty good.”
Harper hit 35 homers in 2019, his first season in Philadelphia. No Phillies player has hit more than 35 homers in a season since Ryan Howard (45) and Jayson Werth (36) in 2009.
Brad Miller added an RBI hit in the fifth inning to give Suarez an insurance run.
Pittsburgh (57-97) has lost three straight.
GIVING A LITTLE EXTRA
Harper’s homer gave him 46 extra-base hits after the All-Star Game, a team record. He surpassed Chase Utley (2005) and Ryan Howard (2006), who each had 45.
UNBROTHERLY LOVE
The Pirates have lost nine of 10 in Philadelphia after winning three games at Citizens Bank Park in 2017.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: INF/OF Michael Chavis (right elbow strain) is close to returning. He has played two games at Triple-A Indianapolis as part of a rehab assignment and is expected to make two more before returning to the Pirates for the final week of the season. … RHP David Bednar (right oblique discomfort) threw a bullpen session Friday. Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton said he’s getting closer and called Bednar “day-to-day.” … RHP J.T. Brubaker (right shoulder inflammation) is continuing to progress, but it is unclear if he will be able to return before season’s end.
Phillies: RHP Archie Bradley was placed on the injured list with a strained left oblique muscle. The injury will cost him the remainder of the regular season, but Bradley is hopeful the Phillies can qualify for the postseason and he can rejoin the team in the playoffs. Bradley had been pitching in a setup role out of the bullpen. The hope was that Connor Brogdon (strained right groin) would be back Saturday, but he is now scheduled for a rehab appearance Sunday in Triple-A, so the earliest he can return is Tuesday. As a result, the Phillies selected the contract of Triple-A LHP Kyle Dohy to fill Bradley’s spot. In order to select Dohy, the Phillies needed room on the 40-man roster and were able to create it by moving LHP Matt Moore (lower back strain) to the 60-day IL, ending his season. … RHP Sam Coonrod was again unavailable Saturday with a thumb issue. … OF Odubel Herrera, who usually leads off against righthanders, was not in the starting lineup. He was removed from Friday’s game with a sore left Achilles. The Phillies hope he can play Sunday.
UP NEXT
Pirates: RHP Max Kranick (1-3, 7.28) will start for Pittsburgh in the series finale with Philadelphia.
Phillies: Due to injuries and ineffectiveness with depth starters, Philadelphia has been throwing a bullpen game every fifth day in September. They are due for another one in their 2021 regular season home finale Sunday against Pittsburgh. It’s possible Adonis Medina (0-0, 1.59) gets his second major league start after getting the call in the Phillies’ last bullpen game.
