Ranger Suárez the latest Phillies starting pitcher to make his playoff debut: ‘It’s very special to me’

ATLANTA — Phillies pitcher Ranger Suárez has faced the Braves 15 times in his career — six starts — but on Tuesday at approximately 1:07 p.m. against Atlanta, he will do something he’s never done: Start a playoff game.

Suárez isn’t alone. Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola were also making the first postseason starts of their careers when they took the mound for the Phillies in Games 1 and 2 last weekend in St. Louis. But Suárez has taken an atypical path to get to this point.

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Unlike Wheeler and Nola, Suárez has pitched out of the bullpen for most of his big-league career. He pitched his way into the rotation in 2021, posting a 1.36 ERA through 106 innings, but it wasn’t until 2022 that the left-handed pitcher was used as a starter for a full season. The magnitude of the Phillies trusting him to start Game 1 in the National League Division Series is not lost on him.

“Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been dreaming about this moment,” Suárez said on Monday, through a translator. “So, to have the opportunity [Tuesday], knowing that the team trusts me enough to do this, it’s very special to me, and it means a lot to me.”

Although Suárez doesn’t have any playoff experience, he feels like he’s learned something from watching the outings by Wheeler and Nola in St. Louis. The two starters combined for 13 scoreless innings. They collectively struck out 10 and held the Cardinals to six hits and two walks.

Suárez will be facing a tougher opponent in the reigning World Series champion Braves, who combined for a .760 OPS, second-best in baseball this season. But in his mind, the same approach Wheeler and Nola used can be used to face any team.

“I love how they go about their business,” Suárez said. “Something that I learn from them all the time is how they attack hitters. It’s just amazing how they do it.”

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Suárez has been solid against the Braves this season, and for his career. He has a 3.21 ERA over 42 innings.

“I faced them a couple times in the regular season,” he said. “I know they’re a really good team. That’s no secret there. But I try not to think too much about that challenge, because that’s why we’re at this stage of the year. It’s going to be a tough battle. But it’s something that I try not to think too much about.”

Braves manager Brian Snitker said on Monday that left-hander Max Fried will start Game 1 on Tuesday and right-hander Kyle Wright is likely to start Game 2 on Wednesday. Wright has a 2.84 ERA through three starts against the Phillies this season and Fried has a 3.13 ERA through four starts.

The Phillies’ lineup combined for nine hits across two games (57 at-bats) in the National League wild-card series in St. Louis, with most of the action coming from the bottom of the lineup. Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins, the Phillies’ Nos. 1 and 2 hitters, both went hitless. Nick Castellanos, who bats fifth, did too.

“I actually was speaking with [hitting coach] Kevin Long,” Hoskins said of the Phillies’ offense. “I think we had 10 guys reach base by walk or hit by pitch throughout the series, too.

“[We] spoke about this all year. We have opportunities and there’s traffic on the bases, the more stressful those pitches are for the other side. Eventually we’re going to get a mistake, and that’s kind of what we’ve done all year. We’ve had big innings like you saw in St. Louis. But I think just the quality of at-bats is something that we’re going to try to continue on for the rest of the time that we’re playing.

“We’re facing the studs, right? It’s hard to get hits off these guys. It’s hard to string hits together. But I think if we continue to have quality at-bats, take our walks when they’re presented to us, take the extra base, have opportunities to score with less than two outs, eventually we’ll push runs across. And I think that’s what you saw in the ninth inning there in St. Louis. More hits is better, usually. But I’ve learned quickly that it’s hard to get hits in the postseason. Just getting guys on is where we’re trying to be.”

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