Phillies fall to Diamondbacks in 10 innings after a rough start by Ranger Suárez
Published in Baseball
PHILADELPHIA — Ranger Suárez returned to a major-league mound Sunday amid modest expectations.
“Throw strikes,” manager Rob Thomson said.
For two innings, Suárez complied. But in his first start for the Phillies since Game 4 of last year’s divisional round playoff series — 207 days ago — he stumbled in the third inning and didn’t make it out of the fourth.
Suárez left the Phillies in a six-run hole. And although they stormed back to tie the game when they were down to their final out — and got Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber to the plate as the winning run in the 10th inning — they dropped an 11-9 decision in the rain to scuttle a potential three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citizens Bank Park.
J.T. Realmuto, whose aggressive baserunning ended a rally in the seventh inning, kept the ninth inning going with a two-out single. Alec Bohm, whose inability to knock down a ball at third base enabled a run to score against Suárez in the fourth inning, tied it, 8-8, with a single against Diamondbacks reliever Shelby Miller.
But Arizona scored three runs in the 10th against reliever José Alvarado, pressed into duty to pitch two innings because Suárez lasted only 3 2/3 and the Phillies burned through five relievers.
As ever, it starts with the starting pitcher.
Suárez began the season on the injured list after dealing with lower back stiffness in March. He made four minor-league starts that doubled as a delayed spring training, most recently last Sunday in Triple-A.
And his return couldn’t have started much better.
Suárez breezed through the first two innings, retiring six batters in a row, including four strikeouts. But he ran into trouble after a one-out walk in the third. He allowed three consecutive hits, including Geraldo Perdomo’s RBI double and a two-run single by Corbin Carroll.
The Diamondbacks’ fourth-inning rally came with two outs. José Herrera lined a two-run double and scored when Bohm couldn’t knock down Perdomo’s chopper to third base. The play was initially scored an error but changed to a hit.
Perdomo swiped both second and third base against Suárez before Carroll drove him in with a single. And as Suárez trudged off the mound, the Phillies stared at a 7-1 deficit.
The Phillies began chipping away on Johan Rojas’ two-out RBI single in the fourth inning against Diamondbacks lefty starter Eduardo Rodríguez. They put two runners on base against Rodríguez in the sixth before Weston Wilson banged a three-run homer against reliever Juan Morillo to cut the margin to 7-5.
Realmuto pushed the Phillies to within one run with a two-out RBI single in the seventh. But his aggressiveness on the bases ended the rally. Realmuto tried to go from first to third after a third strike skipped by the catcher. After he was called safe on a headfirst slide, a replay challenge revealed Realmuto was tagged on the helmet.
The Diamondbacks tacked on an insurance run in the ninth inning against Alvarado to make it 8-6. But Schwarber swatted a two-out solo homer and Nick Castellanos and Realmuto singled to bring the winning run to the plate against Miller.
Bohm lined a single to center field to bring the Phillies all the way back.
The game began on time amid a break in the rain, with more in the forecast. And Harper quenched a 13-game homer drought — and opened a 1-0 lead — in the first inning by reaching over the plate and taking a fastball the opposite way into the left-field bleachers.
But Suárez turned the lead into a steep deficit.
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