Trailing 2-0 to the reigning World Series champs in the best-of-5 National League Division Series, the Philadelphia Phillies‘ feet were officially feeling the fire — especially after falling behind 1-0 in the third inning of the do-or-die Game 3.
But Jack-of-all-trades left-hander Ranger Suarez breathed life back into the Phillies and enhanced his postseason legend even further.
The unheralded starter, who was resigned to the bullpen for the NLDS, threw five innings of one-run, five-hit relief of Aaron Nola while striking out four and earning the win in the Phillies’ season-saving 8-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
The road team has won every game in the series. The Phillies, who still trail the series 2-1, will try to stave off elimination for a second straight day when they send staff ace Cristopher Sanchez to the hill against Tyler Glasnow in Game 4 on Thursday at 6:08 p.m. ET.
Ranger Suarez Helped Save The Phillies’ Season
Nola was solid by allowing a triple to Mookie Betts and hitting Freddie Freeman over his two-inning outing, before manager Rob Thomson stuck with his plan to go to Suarez.
“Nola was really good,” Thomson said. “The plan was to go [with Nola] one time through the lineup.
Thomson said he wanted Suarez to start against the Dodgers’ leadoff man Shohei Ohtani — even though he actually faced Tommy Edman, who started Suarez’s night inauspiciously with a leadoff home run on Suarez’s first batter faced.
But from there Suarez settled in and did his job of keeping the Dodgers in the park, plus was ultra effective at holding the Dodgers’ lefty hitters in check.
“He settled right in after [the home run to Edman], which was awesome,” Schwarber said.
“They pretty much did exactly what we wanted,” Thomson said. “We wanted to use those guys to get as close to [closer Jhoan] Duran as we could to save the bullpen for tomorrow.”
Shohei Ohtani, Freeman and Max Muncy combined to go 2 for 12 in Game 3, and they were 1 for 7 against Suarez — even though Ohtani’s 362-foot fly out to end the seventh inning would have been a home run in four of 30 major-league parks.
“He’s 1 for 20 with nine strikeouts against Ranger,” Thomson said of Ohtani. “They executed perfectly.”
With Suarez mowing down the Dodgers, the Phillies found their offense. Kyle Schwarber led off the fourth inning with a no-doubt homer — the first of his two blasts in Game 3 — which led to a three-run frame.
By the time Suarez officially exited the game, with Orion Kerkering taking over in the eighth inning, the Phillies were ahead 8-1 and had effectively clinched a second game in LA. They even preserved Duran for a potential multi-inning outing Thursday.
Ranger Suarez Is A Postseason Performer
Suarez improved to 4-1 with a 1.47 ERA in 42 2/3 innings over 11 postseason appearances in his postseason career.
But Wednesday was only Suarez’s third relief appearance in the postseason, and the home run he allowed to Edman was the first — and only — earned run he has surrendered in 6 1/3 innings of relief.
In addition to his season-saving win, Suarez also has a save in the Phillies’ pennant-clinching, Game 5 win over the San Diego Padres in 2022.
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