Ranger Suárez typically doesn’t show much emotion, but in the moments after the second inning on Saturday night, he did. The Phillies starter was cruising along in his typical way, mowing down Cardinals hitters with ease, until Alec Burleson stepped up to the plate.
With two outs, Burleson took a sinker and launched it straight at Suárez. The ball came off of his bat at 106.1 mph and hit Suárez in his left hand.
As he walked off the mound, he leaned back his head and winced. He lifted his glove to his mouth, and kept it there, as he walked down the dugout steps with assistant athletic trainer Joe Rauch.
That was the end of his night. Suárez was given an initial diagnosis of a left hand contusion, and will be evaluated further. It’s unclear if he will miss his next start, which is scheduled for June 8, in London. It’s possible the Phillies could skip Suárez’s London start, and move Taijuan Walker and Zack Wheeler up a day.
But if Suárez does miss time, the Phillies can take some solace in the fact that they have had a starter sitting in the bullpen, waiting for his next opportunity. Spencer Turnbull was moved to a relief role in early May, but not for performance reasons. As Taijuan Walker recovered from right shoulder soreness, Turnbull pitched to a 1.67 starter’s ERA.
And on Saturday, in a 6-1 Phillies win, he didn’t miss a beat. None of the Phillies’ relievers did. They allowed just one run and no walks with 11 strikeouts.
José Ruiz entered for Suárez in the third, and allowed one earned run on two hits with one strikeout. Turnbull didn’ allow a baserunner, striking out six over three innings of work.
Orion Kerkering entered in the seventh. He ran into some trouble after allowing a one-out double to Ivan Herrera and a two-out single to Dylan Carlson, but struck out Nolan Gorman to end the inning.
» READ MORE: Ranger Suárez exits his start early with a left hand contusion after getting hit by comebacker
Gorman worked Kerkering to a seven-pitch at-bat. He hit a towering foul ball on Kerkering’s sweeper, so Kerkering adjusted. The next five pitches he fed Gorman were four-seam fastballs. It’s a pitch that Kerkering has becoming increasingly more comfortable with, thanks to some urging from pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
“To his credit, he’s worked hard on his fastballs,” Cotham said on Friday. “They’re truer than they’ve ever been. He’s got a lot of confidence in them. So, if you see something and the hitter doesn’t like it, consider throwing it again. Sometimes, that’s a fastball. It just creates more indecision.
“The sweeper he can probably throw every pitch and be pretty good. But if he wants to be great, it’s noticing those little things. It’s his version of the art of pitching.”
The Phillies got on the board early, with a two-RBI double from Alec Bohm in the first, and an RBI double from Nick Castellanos’ two at-bats later. Brandon Marsh added on with an RBI single in the third, and Bryce Harper blew the game open in the bottom of the seventh.
With two outs, J.T. Realmuto hit a grounder to third baseman Nolan Arenado, who overthrew the ball to Paul Goldschdmit at first base. Arenado was charged with a throwing error, and Realmuto reached base safely.
That brought Harper up to bat, who quickly made the Cardinals pay for their fielding blunder. In a 1-1 count, he crushed a two-run home run that traveled 415 feet, and landed in the second deck of the right field stands.
It gave the Phillies a 6-1 lead. Seranthony Dominguez — who now has a 1.50 ERA over his last seven outings — pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Gregory Soto pitched the ninth. He allowed a double to Goldschmidt, but then recorded his next three outs with a strikeout, a lineout, and a groundout.
