Phillies place Ranger Suárez on injured list with hamstring strain; Andrew Bellatti recalled

WASHINGTON — Ranger Suárez’s sore hamstring will sideline him for more than one start.

The Phillies placed Suárez on the 15-day injured list Saturday and recalled reliever Andrew Bellatti from triple-A Lehigh Valley. Suárez said an MRI of his right hamstring revealed a Grade 1 strain, the most mild category.

“I feel better today than I did [Friday],” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “I came in walking fine.”

But the Phillies aren’t taking any chances. The move to the injured list, retroactive to Wednesday, comes one day after Suárez was scratched from his scheduled start Sunday night in the Little League Classic in Williamsport.

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“We’re really being precautious with this,” manager Rob Thomson said. “Hopefully he comes back to us right at the end of the IL stint. Hopefully. We’ll see.”

Suárez has a 3.88 ERA in 17 starts after missing the first six weeks of the season with an elbow strain. The Phillies are counting on him in the rotation down the stretch.

With Suárez out until at least Sept. 1, the Phillies will return to five starters: Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker, Michael Lorenzen, and Cristopher Sánchez, in that order. They were using six for the last two weeks, since acquiring Lorenzen at the trade deadline, in part because of a recent long stretch of games without a day off.

Walker hasn’t pitched since Aug. 12 because of arm fatigue — “dead arm,” as he described it to Thomson. But he threw a 25-pitch bullpen session Saturday, and Thomson said the Phillies believe he will be ready to start Tuesday night at home against the Giants.

Suárez remains unsure of how he tweaked his hamstring. He went through usual between-starts activity — light catch, sprinting, shagging fly balls in the outfield — Wednesday in Toronto. After returning to the clubhouse, he began to feel soreness.

“It’s not like a felt a pop or a pull, nothing,” Suárez said. “It must have been [from] doing one of those things. But I didn’t feel anything.”

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Suárez said he told the team that he wanted to avoid the injured list. But without knowing how quickly his hamstring will respond to treatment, the Phillies opted for a conservative course of action.

Two years ago, Suárez strained his hamstring and missed the first six weeks of the season.

“Back in ‘21, I did feel a snap, like a pull. It was serious. This feels different,” Suárez said. “I don’t want to miss too much. I want to get back into action as quickly as possible because I know I missed some time early in the year. I don’t want to fall into that again”

Make way for outfielder Brandon Marsh and reliever José Alvarado.

Marsh, sidelined since Aug. 6 by a bruised left knee, is expected to meet the team Sunday in Williamsport and be reinstated from the injured list, according to Thomson. Alvarado, who hasn’t pitched since July 6 because of elbow inflammation, is set to be activated before Monday night’s game at home against the Giants.

Thomson said Marsh might get more time in left field than center because of how well Johan Rojas has played in his absence. Even after a rare error Friday night, Rojas has more defensive runs saved than any player in baseball since the All-Star break.

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“He’s played excellent,” Thomson said. “He eliminates a lot of runs, and he’s held his own offensively. He’s got some big hits for us. He really deserves a shot. It could happen.”

The Phillies will make a roster move to add Marsh, with utilityman Weston Wilson likely headed back to triple A.

With two homers Friday night, Kyle Schwarber made history as the first player ever with seven multi-homer games in a two-year span against one opponent, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. He had 17 homers in 29 games vs. the Nationals since the beginning of last season. ... Thomson on outfielder Jake Cave, who was on an 11-for-26 surge entering Saturday: “Earlier in the year, he actually hit the ball hard and had a lot of tough luck, and then sometimes when that happens, it gets in your head and you try to change things when you don’t need to. Right now, he’s swinging the bat great, swinging at strikes, not chasing, using the entire field, and hitting line drives. I hope he keeps it up.” ... Wheeler (9-5, 3.63 ERA) is scheduled to start Sunday night in Williamsport against Nationals righty Trevor Williams (5-7, 5.20).