Phillies Shutout Braves 2-0 Behind Great Start From Ranger Suarez
Philadelphia Phillies' Ranger Suárez pitches during the third inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Tuesday, May 27, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Ranger Suarez might officially be back.
With the Phillies’ offense struggling in their return from a seven-game road trip, the Phillies’ left-hander and the rest of the Phillies bullpen stepped up big for the Fightins’ in a huge 2-0 shutout win over rival Atlanta Braves.
Known Philadelphia villain Spencer Strider was on the mound, and he looked decent in his third start of the season, however, Strider gave the Philadelphia faithful a big reason to boo him even more throughout the night.
While it was great to see the Phillies pick up their 35th win of the season and stay in first place in the MLB, their MVP first baseman saw only two pitches the entire night. Bryce Harper was injured after getting hit in the elbow by a 95 mph fastball. He left the game, but his X-rays were negative.
Other than the hit by pitch to Harper, no other action happened in the first inning, as Suarez picked up two strikeouts and Strider worked around the base runner. Suarez allowed a walk to Ozzie Albies to start the second, but worked around thanks to a couple of groundouts.
In the bottom of the second, Alec Bohm led off the inning with a walk, and two batters later, Max Kepler smoked a double to right field over the head of Ronald Acuna Jr., allowing Bohm to score from first to make it 1-0 Phillies.
One was all the Phillies got, but Suarez continued to pound through the Braves’ lineup. In the third, he allowed a base hit to Austin Riley with two outs, but got Marcell Ozuna to strike out on a nasty curveball to get out of that inning.
Bryson Stott led off the third with a walk and stole second base, but two strikeouts ended that inning. In the fourth, Suarez picked up another pair of strikeouts, but in their half of the inning, the Phillies went down in order.
In the top of the fifth, Suarez ran into his first inning of trouble. Michael Harris II led off the inning with a single, and Nick Allen bunted him over to second base. Acuna walked, Riley grounded in a force out to put runners on the corners, but a walk to Ozuna loaded the bases for Matt Olson. Olson worked the count, but Suarez struck him out on a fastball at the eyes to get out of the jam.
A pair of two-out walks from Stott and Trea Turner gave the Phillies two base runners for Edmundo Sosa, who was hitting in place of the injured Harper. Sosa grounded out to third on a nice play by Riley to end the fifth.
Sitting at 88 pitches, Suarez came out for the sixth inning, but allowed a first-pitch single to Albies. Suarez then got Sean Murphy to strike out, popped Eli White, and Harris grounded out to first to finish off his night with six shutout innings and eight strikeouts.
A leadoff walk to Kyle Schwarber bottom half of this sixth gave the Phillies an early baserunner, but Bohm grounded into a double play after smacking a grounder back up the middle. Nick Castellanos then smacked a single to right for the first Phillies hit since the second inning, but Kepler flew out to right to end the inning.
Both the Braves and the Phillies got singles from their leadoff hitters, but both failed to add any runs. Matt Strahm was on in the eighth and got a lineout from Olson and a strikeout to Albies for two quick outs. Murphy worked a full count to walk, but White grounded out to short to end the inning.
A groundout to Sosa and a strikeout to Schwarber gave the Phillies two quick outs. Bohm and Castellanos then hit back-to-back singles, and Kepler worked a walk to load the bases for J.T. Realmuto. Realmuto got ahead early but worked the count to walk and bring in Bohm to double the Phillies’ lead to two. Johan Rojas then strikes out to send the game to the ninth.
In the ninth, Jordan Romano came on to pick up the save. He sent Harris down on three pitches to kick off the ninth, and got Drake Baldwin to ground out for two quick outs. Up came Acuna with two outs, and Romano got him to line out to center to end the game, picking up the 2-0 shutout victory.
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Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
