Bryce Harper broke out of his slump in a big way on Saturday, and Ranger Suarez threw a gem on the same evening.
The Philadelphia Phillies are feeling good about themselves heading into their series finale Sunday night against the Guardians in Cleveland.
Harper hit a two-run homer, doubled and had a season-high three hits — his first multiple extra-base hit game of the year — to ignite Philadelphia’s 7-1 win Saturday. The 421-foot blast to center off reliever Joey Cantillo was just Harper’s second homer in a 19-game span.
“I hit a couple of balls hard and it felt good,” Harper said. “It’s a good stepping stone.”
The two-time National League MVP had struggled since April 21, going 11-for-63 with six RBIs four extra-base hits for a .175 average. Harper also singled on Saturday as the Phillies bounced back from losing the opener 6-0 on Friday.
“Once Harp hit that home run, everyone kind of exhaled a little bit,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said. “The double to left-center was impressive, and the home run was huge. For him, for us, for everybody.”
Harper is batting .242 for the season, with seven homers and 22 RBIs.
Suarez gave the Phillies another morale boost by throwing seven shutout innings Saturday against a Guardians team that has won 12 of its 18 home games this season. He returned to his All-Star form of a year ago, scattering three singles in a thrifty 82 pitches.
“Ranger threw a great game and kept them off-balance,” Harper said. “His change and heater were great and his sinker was really good.”
The left-hander had been sidelined with lower back stiffness until May 4, when he made his season debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks and gave up seven earned runs in 3 2/3 innings.
“I was overthrowing in my last start, so I just pitched what I had today,” Suarez said through an interpreter.
Philadelphia right-hander Zack Wheeler (3-1, 3.35 ERA) will take on Guardians righty Luis L. Ortiz (2-3, 5.30) in the rubber match of the three-game series on Sunday. Wheeler has lost both of his career starts against Cleveland but has a 2.25 ERA over 12 innings.
Ortiz has faced the Phillies three times in his career, going 2-0 with an 0.69 ERA.
The Guardians averaged 7.2 runs in their six previous games before Suarez and two relievers limited them to four hits on Saturday.
“I thought Suarez was really good tonight, but I also thought we weren’t very great offensively,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “We just weren’t able to string quality at-bats together. We needed to be better offensively to win that game.”
Third baseman Jose Ramirez had two hits and a stolen base for Cleveland, and Santana has reached base in 13 straight games.
With the Guardians amid a 12-game stretch of interleague games, Vogt said he was keeping an eye on the American League Central standings. Detroit, defending Central champion Cleveland and Kansas City have three of the top four records in the AL.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Vogt said. “We have three really good teams, and the Twins are good and the White Sox play us tough. It’s a really hard division to win games, so it’s not surprising to see three teams having a lot of success early.”
–Field Level Media
