Frederlin Castro
Ranger Suarez pitched six brilliant innings, and the Philadelphia Phillies they continued their push for the club’s first playoff berth in a decade with a 1-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.
Suarez allowed five hits, struck out four and walked two. “I just focused on throwing quality pitches,” said Suarez, who earned a no-decision in his previous outing against Atlanta last week. “That’s the main thing. It’s very difficult when you’re facing the same lineup back to back. We knew it was going to be that way, but I had a good plan with JT.”
The @Brewers and @Phillies picked up crucial W’s last night as the NL Wild Card race continued to entertain ð¿@markdero7 breaks down Kolten Wong (3 HR, 5 RBI) and Ranger Suárez (6 IP, 0 ER) following their clutch performances.#ThisIsMyCrew | #RingTheBell | #MLBCentral pic.twitter.com/PwaEOJqD17
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) September 23, 2022
Closer to playoffs
Philadelphia is closer to San Diego in the second wild card spot in the National League. The Phillies also have the lead in the season series over the Brewers, which serves as a tiebreaker this year after MLB eliminated the single-game tiebreaker under its expanded playoff format.
“It was a tight game with a lot of pressure and they came through,” Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson said. “Ranger was as cool as a cucumber and he pitched like we’ve seen in the past. He was terrific.” Nothing in the game bothers Eflin. And we wanted to see by the end of the year if Alvarado could pitch the ninth and more innings and he did tonight.”