Phillies take conservative approach with Ranger Suárez, ride offense and bullpen to 5-1 win over Reds

Ranger Suárez blew a kiss skyward while he walked back to the Phillies’ dugout. It was the middle of the fifth inning Saturday. He had just thrown his 80th pitch.

And then, just like that, he was gone.

“It was by design,” manager Rob Thomson said.

Suárez reported a twinge in his shoulder and back after his previous start. He has a history of back problems. And after a sore lower back torpedoed his All-Star first half last year, the Phillies will do whatever it takes to make sure history doesn’t repeat.

» READ MORE: Trade deadline preview: Dave Dombrowski on the Phillies’ biggest roster needs and their X-factor

With all of that in mind, Thomson informed Suárez ahead of time that he’d be capped at 85 pitches in this start against the Reds. Suárez was on board with the plan.

And as an added bonus, the Phillies won the game, too.

Four relievers combined for 12 outs and Alec Bohm swatted a tiebreaking two-run home run to deep left-center field in the sixth inning of a series-evening 5-1 victory before 42,045 paying customers in Citizens Bank Park.

The Phillies (52-37) maintained their half-game lead over the Mets in the NL East and will send ace Zack Wheeler to the mound Sunday in the finale against the Reds (46-43), the last home game before the break.

And if Thomson and pitching coach Caleb Cotham decide it’s best to be conservative with Suárez in his next start, too, scheduled for Friday in San Diego, well, they won’t hesitate to keep pulling back the reins.

“We’ll see how he comes out of this and see how he feels,” Thomson said. “If we have to do it again, we’ll do it again.”

Suárez’s velocity was below his season average last Sunday in Atlanta, although radar readings aren’t typically a red flag for the finesse lefty. But Suárez said that he let the staff know “my body wasn’t feeling 100%.”

That’s all the Phillies needed to hear.

» READ MORE: One-stop shopping at the trade deadline: Three teams that could be a match for Phillies’ biggest needs

Because everything revolves around the starting rotation. It’s undeniably the strength of the roster. And if the Phillies are going to stand a chance of winning the World Series, it will be because Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Suárez, Jesús Luzardo, and eventually Aaron Nola — and maybe even top prospect Andrew Painter — combine to dominate October.

“That’s why we had the pitch limit today, right?” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “Last season, in the second half, I got hurt. The pitch limit was just because of that to see how we can progress to keep feeling better and just going forward.”

And how did it feel against the Reds?

“Today, I felt good overall,” Suárez said. “I felt way better.”

For five innings, in fact, it was a duel between two tough lefties.

Suárez didn’t yield a hit until the fourth inning; Reds starter Nick Lodolo countered by retiring 13 of the first 16 batters. The Reds scored first when Will Benson ambushed Suárez for a solo homer in the fifth; the Phillies answered with energizing Edmundo Sosa’s fifth-inning solo shot against Lodolo.

“I’m just looking up at the board, and I saw 93 [mph], so that was a good sign,” Thomson said of Suárez. “I don’t really concern myself with that because he pitches. That’s what he did. He threw strikes, first-pitch strikes. Changeup was really good. A lot of soft contact.”

In other words, typical Suárez.

» READ MORE: Cincinnati’s Austin Hays says it ‘would have been nice to play another year’ with Phillies

Suárez has been on a heater for two months, taking two notable streaks to the mound against the Reds: 10 consecutive quality starts and five starts in a row of at least seven innings.

It might be enough to get him selected to the National League All-Star team when rosters are announced Sunday.

“One of the goals that you have as a player is to go to the All-Star Game,” said Suárez, who has a 1.99 ERA in 12 starts. “On that end, I’m a little hopeful. If that happens, then I’m excited about it. But I think the main thing for us is to focus and just finish the first half as healthy as possible.”

But Suárez was in exactly the same position a year ago, with a 1.83 ERA through his first 16 starts. He made the All-Star team but was unable to pitch because of the back issue, which flared again in spring training and caused him to miss the season’s first six weeks.

So, the Phillies took five strong innings from Suárez and turned over a 1-1 game to reliever Jordan Romano for the sixth inning.

Kyle Schwarber broke it open with a two-run homer in the eighth. It came against a lefty, of course (Schwarber leads the National League with 13 homers vs. lefties), and was his team-leading 27th homer.

It also provided breathing room for lefty Matt Strahm, who took the baton in the ninth inning after Orion Kerkering doused a two-on, nobody-out brushfire caused by an error by shortstop Trea Turner with a 3-1 lead in the eighth.

» READ MORE: Three deals we'd like to see before the trade deadline

Suárez’s streak of quality starts ended, only because he didn’t complete six innings for the first time since May 4, his first start after opening the season on the injured list. But he has allowed a total of 10 earned runs in 73⅓ innings over his last 11 starts for a 1.23 ERA.

See why it’s so important to keep him healthy?

“Last year at this same point, obviously I had more innings pitched,” Suárez said. “I think it’s more about being careful and not trying to rush it to the end of the season.”