Phillies squander nearly flawless Ranger Suárez performance in 1-0 loss to Astros

HOUSTON — Over 7⅔ innings against the Astros on Tuesday, Ranger Suárez only made a single mistake.

But with a lifeless offense behind him, that one mistake — a cutter to Cooper Hummel that he didn’t get up and in enough — was costly. Hummel’s solo homer, on Suárez’s 99th pitch of the night, proved the difference in the 1-0 Phillies loss to Houston.

“You can’t miss pitches at this level,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “And I paid for it.”

The Astros rolled out a lineup of right-handed hitters, one through nine, to try and get the better of Suárez. A right-handed batter typically has more of an advantage against a left-handed pitcher, according to conventional baseball wisdom.

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But the version of Suárez who has five different pitches he can throw to lefties, who can locate each of them at will and change speeds, isn’t exactly conventional. For the first seven innings, it hardly mattered what side of the plate the Astros hitters stood on.

“He was phenomenal,” said manager Rob Thomson. “First-pitch strikes, keeping them off-balance. His command was outstanding. Got a lot of soft contact.”

He helped himself out in the field. Pitching with teammate Cristopher Sánchez’s Wilson glove after forgetting his own Rawlings one back in Philadelphia, Suárez snagged a pair of line drives up the middle, one belt-high that he turned into a double play and the other near his face.

“It’s pretty natural,” Thomson said. “He’s a good athlete. He bounces around really well. ... It just seems like every night there’s one or two plays that are Ranger Suárez plays.”

Suárez carried a perfect game into the fourth inning and a no-hitter into the sixth. He issued a walk in the fourth to Isaac Paredes to give the Astros their first baserunner of the game, but quickly erased the runner by getting Jose Altuve to line into the double play.

“I just wanted to throw the minimum amount of pitches on every inning,” Suárez said. “So I could just go as far as I could during the game.”

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The left-handed starter on the other side, Framber Valdez, waded in and out of trouble, but the Phillies were unable to capitalize. He scattered four hits, four walks, and Astros fielders committed two errors, but the Phillies failed to get on the board.

Valdez won two games against the Phillies, including the title-clinching Game 6, in the 2022 World Series.

“I thought our approach was pretty good,” Thomson said. “We weren’t getting out of the zone very much early. We had opportunities in the second and third. Just didn’t happen.”

Otto Kemp, who started in left, drew two walks from Valdez. He ran into a force out at third base in the second inning and was thrown out at home in the fourth.

Houston’s first hit of the game was a ground-ball single to lead off the sixth from Yanier Diaz. With second baseman Edmundo Sosa positioned up the middle, Diaz found a hole in the right side of the infield.

The Astros followed it up with a line drive to right field to put two on with no outs. But another double play and a strikeout from Suárez held them off the scoreboard.

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Suárez came back out for the eighth with his pitch count at 91, and retired Diaz before the mislocated cutter to Hummel. After Suárez got the nine-hole hitter to pop out, Orion Kerkering took over to face the top of the order. Jeremy Peña doubled, but Kerkering struck out Paredes looking.

Josh Hader closed the game for Houston. The tying run reached first when Sosa was hit by a pitch. Hader then fell behind in the count, 2-0, to Johan Rojas, but Rojas swung at the next three pitches to end the game with a strikeout.

In total, the Phillies left nine men on base and were 0-for-7 in scoring position to squander Suárez’s performance.

“You get shut out, 1-0, it’s a tough loss,” Thomson said. “But hey, got to put it behind us and get back here tomorrow, win a ballgame.”