ATLANTA -- One way or another, Ranger Suárez just gets it done.
The Phillies left-hander continued his remarkable stretch in Sunday's 2-1 win over the Braves at Truist Park, tossing seven innings of one-run ball while striking out eight. It was his fifth straight outing of at least seven innings -- and his 10th straight start of at least six innings.
Suárez has a 1.19 ERA over his past 10 starts. That's the lowest ERA by any Phillies pitcher over a 10-start stretch since Cliff Lee in 2011. In fact, going back to when the mound was lowered in 1969, the only other Phillies with a sub-1.20 ERA over any 10-start span within a season are Roy Oswalt (2010) and Steve Carlton (1972).
“The way he's been able to pitch and manipulate the baseball and attack hitters, mix really well -- he's doing everything you want a pitcher to do to be successful,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “It feels very similar to what he was doing last year.”
Even during the peak of Suárez's historic start to last season, his best ERA over any 10-start stretch was 1.29.
So, is this the best Suárez has ever pitched?
“This is close to, if not the best, I've felt pitching,” he said via team interpreter Diego D'Aniello.
Manager Rob Thomson was more direct.
“I think he's pitching better than I've ever seen him pitch,” Thomson said. “I really do.”
The Phillies have needed every bit of Suárez's dominance. With the offense struggling of late, the Phils entered Sunday just 2-3 in his five June starts despite Suárez going at least six innings and not allowing more than two runs in any of them.
That included Tuesday in Houston, when he took a tough-luck 1-0 loss after allowing a solo home run in the eighth inning -- his only blemish in an otherwise spectacular outing. As a team, the Phillies have lost six games this month in which they’ve allowed two runs or fewer. They had only one such loss in April and May.
“There's been multiple times in the last couple weeks where we've kind of felt bad about how well they've pitched and us not scoring any runs,” Realmuto said. "So they’ve done a good job of keeping us in games.”
Suárez did that once again on Sunday, giving up just one run on a solo homer by Sean Murphy in the second inning. This time, though, the Phils managed to scrape together a pair of runs to get Suárez the win.
After Bryson Stott started the fifth with a leadoff single off Spencer Strider, Otto Kemp drove him in with an RBI double. Kemp then scored what proved to be the decisive run on Trea Turner's sacrifice fly two batters later.
Though that was enough to get the job done this time around, that wasn't the case for the rest of the road trip.
Outside of their 13-run outburst on Friday, the Phillies managed only four runs in the other five games combined against the Astros and Braves. Given that lack of run support, the Phillies' stellar starting pitching hasn't been a luxury, it's been a necessity.
“They're doing their job of keeping us in games, but we've obviously got to pick our offense up a little bit,” Realmuto said. “And hopefully, as the year goes on, we get hotter and hotter so we can give them a little more breathing room.”
In the meantime, Philadelphia’s starters have answered the call -- and it’s not just Suárez.
Going back to when Suárez's 10-start run began on May 10, his 1.19 ERA is the best in the Majors among active pitchers. Teammate Zack Wheeler is second with a 1.50 ERA. Cristopher Sánchez (2.72 ERA) is also in the top 20.
Overall, the Phillies are the only team in the Majors with three healthy starters who have a sub-2.80 ERA and at least 10 starts (Wheeler, Suárez and Sánchez). That doesn’t even include Jesús Luzardo, who has a 2.31 ERA in 15 starts outside of his disastrous two-start stretch when he was tipping pitches.
“From top to bottom -- just the depth we have -- obviously, they're all really quality [starters],” Realmuto said. “Every day, they give us a chance to win a ballgame. There's never a matchup you don't feel good about, which not a lot of teams can say that.”