Phillies push past Cardinals thanks to timely hitting and a good start from Ranger Suárez

ST. LOUIS — Ranger Suárez put together another good outing Saturday night, his third start since he was activated from the 15-day injured list on Sept. 1. Suárez held the Cardinals to four hits, four walks and one run over six innings, with five strikeouts, in a 6-1 Phillies win. His command wasn’t as sharp, and his velocity was slightly down, but he grinded through it.

Suárez’s four walks tied his season high (he also allowed four walks on July 8 at Miami). Because he wasn’t as efficient, he ran his pitch count up, throwing 106 pitches (63 strikes).

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Two of those walks came in the third inning, after Suárez allowed a one-out RBI double to Paul Goldschmidt. But he avoided further damage as Nolan Arenado grounded into a force out and Luken Baker struck out to end the inning.

Suárez has been one of the Phillies’ more consistent starters lately. He has a 3.80 ERA over 20 starts this season, and a 3.32 ERA over his last seven. His ability to pitch six innings or so on most nights has been a help to manager Rob Thomson, who has seen many of his starters struggle to go deep into games. Aaron Nola hasn’t pitched past the fifth inning in his last three starts. Taijuan Walker hasn’t pitched through six innings in his last five starts.

“It’s huge because we haven’t been getting much length lately,” Thomson said. “So maybe this is the first one of a string of them. Sometimes that happens. He’s really pitched well the last couple of times out. Stuff has been good, fastball has been getting on people. Curveball and changeup have all been good.”

Thomson feels that Suárez is trending in the right direction at the best possible time. Suárez agrees. He said after the game that he feels “fresher” because of his time spent on the injured list and is going to try to make up for those few months he missed.

“I’m aware that I missed almost two months,” he said in Spanish. “I want to make up for that. Whenever that is — if it’s tomorrow, a week, or in the postseason — I want to make up for it. Right now, I feel good.”

The bullpen did a solid job behind him, allowing two hits and four walks over three scoreless innings. Dylan Covey, who pitched the ninth, made it more interesting for the Cardinals (65-83) than it needed to be, loading the bases after allowing two walks and a single. But he induced a groundout from Willson Contreras to end the game.

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Like they did on Friday night, the Phillies (81-67) jumped on the Cardinals’ pitching early. Trea Turner doubled in the first, and Alec Bohm drove him home with a two-out single to left. In the second inning, Bryson Stott and Nick Castellanos singled to put runners on the corners. Brandon Marsh scored Stott on a sacrifice fly to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. It was good situational hitting.

In the fifth inning, they blew the game open. Marsh and Johan Rojas hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners, Rojas stole second, and Kyle Schwarber drove them all in with a 358-foot home run to right field. It was his 44th home run of the season, and it broke an 0-for-16 hitless streak.

“It felt good to finally snap out of it for a little bit, especially with runners in scoring position there, less than two outs, being able to get those runs in,” Schwarber said. “That was the more important thing.”

More encouraging, though, was that the Phillies’ seven-, eight-, and nine-hole hitters all recorded two hits. Castellanos, batting out of the seven-hole, went 2-for-4, Marsh, batting eighth, went 2-for-3, and Rojas, batting ninth, went 2-for-3, hitting an RBI double that scored Castellanos in the ninth to give the Phillies a 6-1 lead.

In the first half of the season, the bottom of the lineup carried the Phillies’ offense, but that has not been the case lately. The Phillies’ seven-, eight-, and nine-hole hitters entered Saturday’s game slashing .170/.247/.330 over the past week. They combined for a 29.9% strikeout rate, the sixth highest in baseball over that time frame.

Collectively going 6-for-10 seems like a good way to snap out of it.

“Marshy, he’s been scuffling a little bit, especially swinging and missing and chasing, but he got back on it today,” Thomson said. “And he told me before the game, he said, ‘I promise you, I’m going to give you better at-bats today.’ And he did.”

All in all, it was a much cleaner performance for the Phillies than their win on Friday night. Rojas made a couple of impressive plays in center field that undoubtedly prevented the Cardinals from doing more damage. As a team, they committed no errors.

“I think the defense is obviously premium,” Schwarber said of Rojas. “That ball in the gap ... it’s unfortunate for the other guy, but it’s great for us. You hit a ball 102 mph into the gap, and it’s an out. He made that play look pretty easy. That’s a very tough play.”

The Phillies finished their night in even better position in the National League wild-card race. The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Chicago Cubs in 13 innings on a walk-off RBI single by Gabriel Moreno. The Phillies now have a 3½-game lead in the first place spot over the Cubs with 14 regular-season games to go.