One complete game, where the Phillies finally got good pitching AND good offense is not going to wash away the stench of what had been festering around the team for the past five weeks. Everyone is going to need to see more – a lot more – before the city gets all apostolic about the baseball team again.

But one thing that was an understandable worry for the entirety of that time seemed to be put to bed in 72 pitches over five innings during the Phillies’ 11-2 win over Kansas City on Saturday.

Ranger Suarez looked like Ranger Suarez.

The Phillies’ starting rotation has two horses at the top in Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. It has an out-of-left-field All-Star in the four spot in Cristopher Sanchez. But the linchpin to this staff being ready for the biggest baseball stages has been for the past two years – and still is – Ranger Suarez.

Without him, the Phillies are much more mediocre. With him, they can go toe-to-toe with any team in a three, five, or seven-game series. That’s how important he is.


Making his first start in a little more than a month, there was going to be a lot of breath-holding and hanging on the outcome of pitch after pitch after pitch.

For the first four innings, the Royals, a better-than-average offensive team buoyed by an unheralded superstar in Bobby Witt Jr. – who were it not for Aaron Judge, would be the runaway A.L. MVP this season – were befuddled by a guy who had one start in seven weeks and eschewed a rehab assignment before facing them.

Suarez allowed a double in the first inning to Vinnie Pasquantino and nothing else over four, striking out three and getting Witt Jr., who has the second-highest batting average post All-Star break in the history of baseball behind only Ted Williams, to fly out and ground out.

Suarez started to get a little fatigued in the fifth inning – as he was approaching his pitch limit for the first start back – and yielded a run on a double and a single. But then after letting up a third straight hit, pitching coach Caleb Cotham slowly sauntered to the mound to give Suarez a needed breather. After a longish conversation, Suarez knew this would be his last inning, and he just needed to get two more outs and not give up any more damage.

He struck out Kyle Isbel looking – all three strikes were sinkers on the black down and away. He hit the same spot with all three of them like one of those British dart throwers repeatedly nailing a bullseye.

Then came Maikel Garcia. Again, it was three sinkers in the zone. One was fouled, two were looked at. The last pitch was a 91-MPH sinker that to Garcia had to look like it was coming in for a cup check, only to catch the black on the inner half for strike three.

The Phillies offense exploded from there, but it was that fifth inning that was pivotal. It was a one-run game. The tying and go-ahead runs were on base. Suarez was at the end of his pitch count rope and after having not been in a high leverage spot like this in quite some time, he was as precise and perfect as he needed to be.

Sure, everyone wants to talk about J.T. Realmuto hitting two home runs and becoming the first Phillies catcher to drive in seven runs in a nine-inning game (Carlos Ruiz did it in an 11-inning loss to Atlanta in 2012). Yes, everyone wants to talk about the offense exploding for 18 hits (matching a season high), Bryson Stott getting a much-needed four hits (matching a career-high), and Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner emerging from their batting slumber with a combined five hits.

All that is good conversation and those things will matter, too, for the Phillies to get back onto the trajectory they were on before the All-Star break.

But nothing is as important as pitching in the playoffs. If Suarez can be the slow heartbeat surgeon he’s been in the past two playoffs, then the Phillies are still poised to be a major player in October, no matter what they looked like in July and August.

He checked off a lot of boxes in the affirmative for that on Saturday. Making sure he stays healthy and fresh is the Phillies plan for the next five weeks. And those will be boxes that need to be checked as well. So, nothing is guaranteed and there are still plenty of checkpoints to pass before October turns red.

But if you’re looking for a sign that the Phillies have found a salve for the late summer wounds that they have inflicted on themselves, then look no further then those first five innings Saturday night.