Phillies squander nearly perfect Ranger Suárez performance in 1-0 loss to Astros

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jun 24, 2025

Published in Baseball

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HOUSTON — Over 7 2/3 innings against the Houston Astros on Tuesday, Ranger Suárez only made a single mistake.

But with a lifeless offense behind him, that one mistake — a cutter to Cooper Hummel that caught too much of the plate — was costly. Hummel’s solo homer proved the difference in the 1-0 Phillies loss against Houston.

The Astros rolled out a lineup of right-handed hitters, one through nine, to try and get the better of Suárez. A right-handed batter typically has an advantage against a left-handed pitcher, according to conventional baseball wisdom.

But the version of Suárez who has five different pitches he can throw to lefties, can locate each of them at will and change speeds, is anything but conventional. For the first seven innings, it hardly mattered what side of the plate the Astros hitters stood on.

Suárez carried a perfect game into the fourth inning and a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He issued a walk in the fourth to Isaac Paredes to give the Astros their first baserunner of the game, but quickly erased the runner when Jose Altuve lined a ball straight at him. Suárez made the catch and fired it to first for a double play.

Houston’s first hit of the game was a ground-ball single to lead off the sixth from Yanier Diaz. With second baseman Edmundo Sosa positioned up the middle, Diaz found a hole in the right side of the infield.

The Astros followed it up with a line drive to right field to put two on with no out. But a double play and a strikeout limited the damage.

In the eighth, Suárez retired Diaz before the mislocated cutter to Hummel. After Suárez got the nine-hole hitter to pop out, Orion Kerkering took over to face the top of the order. Jeremy Peña doubled, but Kerkering struck out Paredes looking.

The left-handed starter on the other side, Framber Valdez, waded in and out of trouble, but the Phillies were unable to capitalize. He scattered four hits, four walks and Astros fielders committed two errors, but the Phillies failed to get on the board.

Josh Hader closed the game for Houston. The tying run reached first when Sosa was hit by a pitch, but Johan Rojas struck out to end the game.

In total, the Phillies left nine men on base and were 0 for 7 in scoring position to squander Suárez’s performance.

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