PHILADELPHIA — Ranger Suarez waved away the convenient arguments Sunday. Letting the mystery linger is just fine, since the larger truth was just readily apparent all weekend.
Suarez was the latest Phillies starter not to go five innings with the Los Angeles Angels in town.
His 4.1 laid the groundwork for an 8-2 loss and a series loss straight out of the All-Star break. Whatever Suarez’s reasons for his lack of command, it’s an ominous portend to start the second half, seeing the most reliable aspect of the Phillies’ season stumble.
The weekend was a battle for the starters, none throwing a pitch in a sixth inning.
Jesus Luzardo on Friday didn’t escape the fifth, giving up seven hits and four runs thanks to a pair of home runs. Taijuan Walker was fine through three innings before getting bashed for six hits and two long balls in the fourth on Saturday, though by limiting the damage to three runs, he gave the Phillies a chance to win.
Suarez was basically his own long man from the second inning on Sunday, limiting the bullpen carnage with Boston coming to town Monday. He barely survived a second-inning onslaught that included five hits and five runs, then gutted out seven more outs, most of them with Joe Ross warming in the bullpen.
Instead of the longball, walks were his downfall, Suarez perhaps trying to be too fine around the corners of the zone on a day where his fastball averaged 90 miles per hour. He issued as many free passes as he got swing-and-misses with four.
“I just didn’t have any control of any of my pitches,” Suarez said via a translator. “That’s the main reason why we got the loss today.”
Suarez didn’t blame a 41-minute rain delay, nor extra rest during the break. Manager Rob Thomson didn’t jump to concerns of Suarez’s struggles last year, when he posted a 2.76 ERA in 19 starts in the first half of the season and a 5.65 in eight second-half starts.
Given his outstanding first half — Suarez entered with a 7-3 record and a 2.15 ERA, including 14 earned runs allowed in his last 12 starts for a 1.46 ERA — he has earned the benefit of the doubt for just one blip.
“I don’t have concern if he’s got his command because he can pitch,” Thomson said. “He just didn’t have his command today.”
Suarez didn’t just bat away the extra-rest theory but went in the opposite direction.
“I think if anything it’s the other way around,” he said. “I think that the more rest I can get for my body, it’s going to be usually better. Today that wasn’t the case. But the pitches weren’t there.”
The rotation has been the cornerstone for the Phillies in 2025 as much else has faltered. Their 3.25 ERA in the first half was best in baseball. The starters logged 545 innings in the first half to lead MLB, and the staff’s 13.2 WAR is tops in baseball by more than 3.5 games.
It has been the glue that holds it all together, through bullpen quandaries, through injuries to Bryce Harper and now Alec Bohm, through ineffectiveness bordering on oblivion from Bryson Stott and Max Kepler.
But much as the starting pitching can be an amplifier, it can also be the first domino to fall. Digging holes early doesn’t do much for an offense that seems fragile beyond the top of the order, where an injury to Bohm has helped, an albeit surging, Brandon Marsh rocket up from months in the nine hole to fifth.
Despite the workload, the bullpen helped admirably against the Angels, save for one wayward pitch from Tanner Banks that decided Friday’s game. But the margins there are thin, too, in terms of quantity and quality.
Relievers threw an average of 78 pitches per game this weekend, which is entirely unsustainable.
Three games against the Angels aren’t reason for panic.
The Phillies oriented their rotation out of the break to give their two horses, Cristopher Sanchez and Zack Wheeler, extra rest for the long haul. Wheeler is lined up to pitch against more daunting foes like Boston, the Yankees and Detroit. Sanchez will get the Red Sox and Tigers.
If problems persist, the Phillies have a surfeit of options.
Mick Abel has pitched well in his last two outings at Triple A, though that ideally would serve to inflate his trade value and plug holes in the lineup or bullpen. Aaron Nola is feeling better and tossing bullpens. Andrew Painter remains in Lehigh Valley, though his ERA remains north of 5.
All that informs conversations of what can happen with the postseason rolls around. The Phillies have, at best, two or three high-leverage options in the bullpen. When the rotation thins to four, that group could be augmented by Suarez, by Painter, by Abel if he remains. A rotation headed by Sanchez and Wheeler automatically gives you a chance in any playoff series.
But the Phillies — who finished the weekend just a half-game up on the Mets in the National League East — do have to get to the playoffs. And too many repeats of this weekend’s performances by starters might make that a problem.
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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