Sunday’s Battery Electrifies Phillies’ Series Win over Nationals

Ranger Suarez was handed the ball Sunday to secure a series win against the Nationals, with whom the Phillies split a four-game series last weekend.

The Phils’ offense was tasked with one of the Nats’ back-end starters, Jake Irvin, who has posted a 5.40 ERA this season, and Rob Thomson rolled out a slightly different lineup versus righties to get the Sunday win. Thomson let Nick Castellanos and Harrison Bader stay in the lineup, likely because their bats have been heating up.

With the recent news regarding Zack Wheeler, Suarez tossed a gem in the Phillies’ 3-2 win to get the series victory, just as Wheeler would have.

Suarez cruised through the first two innings without allowing a hit and getting four Nationals down on strikes. His first baserunner allowed was in the third with two outs when Jacob Young doubled, but Ranger killed any momentum by striking out James Wood on three pitches. By then, Suarez had a 2-0 lead to work with because his battery-mate for the day, Rafael Marchan, laced a two-run double in the bottom half of the second.

Marchan has posted a .177 batting average in 79 at-bats this season, and coupled with his defense, the Phillies’ back-up catcher is worth -0.1 bWAR. He’s been hitless in his last three games and hasn’t seen his batting average reach the .200 mark since April, but he was definitely worth a full win in Sunday’s getaway game.

Castellanos, who had two hits on Sunday, started the second inning with a single, and Bader followed suit a few batters later. Marchan then came to the plate with two outs and runners on the corners. It took him two pitches to bring them both in on a 99 mph gapper.

After Castellanos started the next inning with a single, again, Marchan worked an eight-pitch walk with bases loaded to plate another runner. Offensively, all hands were needed on deck as the bottom of the lineup was responsible for all three runs, and Marchan was the one who brought all three in.

Working with a three-run lead now, Suarez took the mound in the fourth and went three up, three down the next two innings. In the sixth, Jacob Young got his second hit off Ranger, which was also the team’s second hit of the day. The southpaw retired Wood again on strikes and got a flyout to escape the inning unscathed.

Suarez cleaned up the seventh inning after allowing a leadoff single, and his day was done. His final line was 7 shutout innings, 3 hits, and a career high 11 strikeouts. Since Wheeler was placed on the injured list, Ranger has been nothing short of impressive. He’s made two starts and racked up 13.2 innings, 21 strikeouts, and has only allowed two runs — really making his case for the second spot in the postseason rotation.

Of course, after Suarez was removed from the game, the bullpen made it interesting since Jhoan Duran cannot pitch three days in a row. Jose Alvarado loaded the bases up, and Tanner Banks, who has been the bullpen’s unsung hero all season, got a double-play ball and a flyout, which held the Nats to one run.

Orion Kerkering allowed a home run in the ninth, which made it a one-run game, but retired the next batter to earn his fourth save of the season — three fewer than Duran’s save count as a Phillie.

It was Suarez and Marchan that powered Sunday’s win, which secured a series win as well. A nice bounce-back series win against the Nationals after the circus show that occurred in D.C.

The Phils head to Citi Field to take on the Mets, who trail the Phillies by seven games for the NL East. Conveniently, the Mets have seven more head-to-head matchups against the Phils.

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