Ranger Suárez has been ‘incredible’ in his last nine starts and has the look of a playoff starter

HOUSTON — Ranger Suárez forgot to pack his glove with him on the Phillies’ current road trip.

So in his start against the Astros on Tuesday, he was forced to use teammate Cristopher Sánchez’s red and black Wilson glove, instead of his typical Rawlings one.

Some pitchers can be extremely superstitious — take Jesús Luzardo and his changing hairstyles, for example — and an unexpected change in gear could risk throwing them off their routine. But even with the different glove, Suárez turned in the same performance the Phillies have come to expect from the left-hander this season.

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“You pretty much book six or seven innings every time. That’s how you feel going into the game,” said manager Rob Thomson. “He’s just been incredible.”

Suárez, who is in the final year of his contract with the Phillies, has been close to automatic through his last nine starts, over which he has put up a 1.17 ERA. But even including his outlier first start when he gave up seven runs over 3⅔ innings, Suárez has held opponents to a hard-hit rate of 27.8% this season. That is the lowest percentage out of all qualified starters.

On Tuesday, Suárez took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but he was charged with the loss due to a lack of run support.

At the beginning of the season, with the Phillies carrying a surplus of starting pitchers, there was talk about Suárez returning to the bullpen. It’s a role in which he has previously pitched effectively, including in the 2022 postseason.

Eventually, it was Taijuan Walker who made the move out of the rotation. But the Phillies still have an overabundance of starting pitchers coming down the pike, with Mick Abel carving out a role for himself, Aaron Nola eventually expected to return from his rib injury, and Andrew Painter’s “July-ish” anticipated arrival in the major leagues drawing closer.

Not to mention the fact that the Phillies are already down a left-handed bullpen arm without José Alvarado, who will be ineligible to pitch in the postseason even when he returns from his 80-game performance-enhancing drug suspension. Moving one of the three starting lefties to the bullpen seems like a logical choice.

But the way Suárez has consistently pitched deep into games this season is something that would be hard for the Phillies to give up if he did move to a relief role. That outlying first start of the year was on May 4, after Suárez returned from the back stiffness that shut him down in spring training. Since then, he has pitched at least six innings in each start, and reached at least seven innings six times.

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For his part, Suárez wants to be a starter. But he also has a bigger goal.

“It was never brought up to me,” he said through a team interpreter Tuesday. “I always wanted to be a starter this year. That’s my usual role, and that’s what I wanted to do. But that being said, what I want is for this team to win. I’m open to do whatever it takes to help this team win, if that’s relieving or whatever.”

Phillies left-handed hitters Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh were back in the starting lineup on Wednesday against Astros lefty Colton Gordon. Both sat the night before against left-hander Framber Valdez.

Gordon has been better against lefty batters than Valdez, though in a smaller sample size since Gordon made his major league debut in May. He entered Wednesday having held lefties to a .591 OPS in seven starts, compared to the .918 OPS righties have against him.

Valdez, on the other hand, has better numbers against righties (.609 OPS) than lefties (.650) this year.

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“Get [the lefties] back in the lineup,” Thomson said. “And I think that the numbers on this guy may be a little bit skewed, because a lot of it’s triple-A numbers. But I think if our guys are disciplined with [Gordon], they’re going to be fine.”

Thomson added that the opposing pitcher’s lefty-righty splits are not the only factor determining how he will platoon his players. Their arsenal, velocity, and shapes of their pitches also play a role.

Left-handed hitter Max Kepler remained on the bench in order to keep Otto Kemp in the lineup. Kemp made his third consecutive start in left field on Wednesday.

Bryce Harper (wrist) took batting practice in the cage on Wednesday, and will likely repeat that on Thursday. Thomson hopes he will be able to hit outside when the Phillies are in Atlanta this week. … Nola threw about 55 times from 90 feet on Wednesday, at “pretty good intensity,” according to Thomson. … Sánchez (6-2, 2.87 ERA) is scheduled to start the series finale against right-hander Hunter Brown (8-3, 1.88) on Thursday.