MILWAUKEE – The pace of play in Thursday’s game made some think the Phillies and Brewers wanted to be done quick enough to get settled in to watch the Eagles-Cowboys game.
In reality, the quickness in the early part was due to two outstanding starts by Ranger Suarez and Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta.
Once the Brewers’ ace was out, the Phillies finally broke a scoreless game in the seventh when Alec Bohm drilled a one-out triple to rightfield and scored on Trea Turner’s two-out single to give the Phillies the only run they needed in what became a 2-0 win over the Brewers. The Phillies took two-of-three from the Brewers and improved to 81-59. Milwaukee fell to 86-55.
The Phillies chased Peralta after just five innings, not because they were hitting him around, but because he had thrown 92 pitches, which included eight strikeouts and three walks. The National League pitcher of the month for August has not allowed an earned run in 29 innings. In his last six starts encompassing 33 innings, Peralta has given up just 13 hits, one earned run, 15 walks and 42 strikeouts.
Suarez was pitch-for-pitch with Peralta, as he once again had terrific command and masterfully worked himself out of tough situations. He allowed a runner in each of his six innings and appeared to be tiring a bit in the sixth.
“He was fantastic,” said Rob Thomson of Suarez. “Strikes, command, kept them off balance, curve ball was really good. I thought he was outstanding, I really did. And the bullpen was great, too. Our offense on their starter was really good. We got his pitch count up, we had 84 pitches after four which is really good even though we didn’t have anything to show for it. Really good defense. All around great team win.”
William Contreras led off that sixth inning with a walk and moved to third on a double by Andrew Vaughn. That’s when Suarez zoned in. With the infield drawn in, he got Caleb Durbin to ground out to Bryson Stott at second, then coaxed Danny Jansen into a shallow fly out to Harrison Bader in center. He got out of the inning when Andruw Monasterio grounded out to Alec Bohm at third.
Suarez finished the day giving up six hits and struck out four in his six innings and 60 of his 89 pitches were strikes.
“We all know how great of a team they are,” said Suarez, who improved to 11-6. “Today I just focused on being myself on the mound and just throwing the pitches that I wanted and the counts that I wanted, too. I think just be myself and how I am naturally, calm. I think that helped me and locating my pitches. The curveball helped me a lot. I threw it a lot in that last inning.”
The Phillies got an insurance run in the eighth when Bader doubled down the leftfield line to lead off the inning and scored on a double by Stott.
After Suarez’s terrific outing, the bullpen was perfect in closing out the Phillies’ fifth win in their last seven games. David Robertson, Matt Strahm and Jhoan Duran each pitched scoreless innings and Duran picked up his 26th save of the season and 10th as a Phillie. He was aided on a leaping catch near the fence in center by Bader off the bat of Monasterio.
“I think our attitude is just keep pushing and keep competing and good things will happen,” said Turner. “We were making (Peralta) work and our pitching staff did a great job today. Ranger was really good and the bullpen was great. Getting that lead and holding onto it was big because you’ve got to win games like that.”
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