Ranger Suárez has another uncharacteristic outing as Phillies drop series opener to Athletics

For the first two innings of the Phillies’ 6-2 loss to the Athletics on Friday, Ranger Suárez was on cruise control. Nothing seemed to rattle him. Trea Turner made an error on the first play, and the lefty was still able to escape the inning on just nine pitches.

It was typical Suárez efficiency until the third inning. Suárez quickly got to two outs, but was unable to retire his next hitter. Instead, he allowed a single, a walk, and three consecutive RBI singles. It took him 33 pitches get out of the frame — more than twice the bullets he’d used in innings one and two (15).

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Suárez finished his night at 97 pitches, of which 55 were strikes. He allowed four earned runs on six hits with three walks, and six strikeouts. It was another uncharacteristic outing for a pitcher who has been in Cy Young Award conversations for most of this year. He now has an 8.62 ERA over his last three starts.

Suárez has already thrown nearly as many innings this season (114) as he has last season (125). His velocity ticked down again Friday night. It’s prompted questions about whether or not the lefty is going through a dead-arm period. Both Suárez and Manager Rob Thomson have said, multiple times, that they think that isn’t the case. They reinforced that opinion again on Friday.

“I don’t think so,” Thomson said. “I mean, in the sixth inning, the ball was coming out of his hand really good.”

Added Suárez: “No. I worked all offseason to address this, to pitch throughout the whole season. I knew I would pitch a lot of innings. But I feel good.”

Luckily for Suárez, and the Phillies, the All-Star break starts next week. He will be going, and said he plans to pitch. Even if that happens, he won’t pitch for long. Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Paul Skenes was named the National League All-Star starter on Friday.

Maybe the extra rest will do him some good. If it doesn’t, the Phillies will look closer at the skid he’s been on. Suárez believes it is mental more than anything else.

“Trying to be too perfect,” he said. “When I try to be too perfect, the pitches don’t go where I want them to. So, I have to try to have better command.”

The A’s tacked on two runs in the eighth when José Ruiz allowed a two-run homer to Lawrence Butler. The Phillies’ lineup combined for only two runs on six hits.

It wasn’t just an uncharacteristic night for Suárez. The Phillies don’t typically lose at home, and they don’t typically lose the first games of series. They’ve spent this season beating up on bad teams — and some good teams, like the Los Angeles Dodgers — but fell to a club with a record of 36-60 on Friday.

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The lineup did not do them any favors. They had some opportunities to do damage, but didn’t capitalize as much as they should have. A’s starter Hogan Harris allowed six walks in three innings — five of them in his first 1⅔ innings — but the Phillies managed just two earned runs off of him.

“I felt like we were doing a really good job of getting traffic on the bases, it was just that one big hit kind of [eluded] us all night,” said Kyle Schwarber. “That’s the frustrating thing. We all pride ourselves on driving guys in and scoring runs, because our pitchers have been doing such a fantastic job for us, keeping us in games. Ranger battled through it tonight and was able to go out there, and he got through six tonight and kept the game close. We wanted to go out there and score runs and get him a win. I think that’s the frustrating thing for us.”

The first four hitters in the lineup went a combined 3-for-11 with three strikeouts. Frustrations came to a head in the eighth. Schwarber was called out on strikes, and Trea Turner was too. The fourth and final pitch of the at-bat was out of the strike zone, but called a strike, and Turner made some comments to home plate umpire David Rackley.

Turner was ejected, and Thomson began to talk to Rackley (in what seemed to be a heated conversation). Bryce Harper walked, and Alec Bohm singled, but Nick Castellanos flew out to the right field wall to end the inning.

Bryson Stott struck to start the ninth, Weston Wilson singled, Rafael Marchán popped out, and pinch-hitter Brandon Marsh struck out to end the game.

“We had opportunities,” Thomson said. “They kind of shut us down. But we definitely had opportunities.”