They got there Tuesday night with the help of a man who has made October look easy. Ranger Suárez, owner of a career 1.43 postseason ERA, delivered six innings of one-hit brilliance, piling up a career-high 12 strikeouts. He capped his night by freezing Pete Alonso with an 80-mph slider below the zone, his 99th pitch, before strolling off to a thunderous ovation.
It was Ranger at his Ranger-est.
“Masterful, really,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “The heartbeat never changes. He’s just his own man, and he goes out there and just pitches. He’s really something when he’s on, he’s really something.”
And then came the fireworks. Kyle Schwarber turned the game into a party in the seventh, launching his 50th home run of the season—a three-run blast that made him just the second Phillie ever to hit 50 in a year. The other? Ryan Howard, who slugged 58 in his 2006 MVP season. So of course the crowd demanded a curtain call. Of course they roared “M-V-P.”
“Obviously, I want to enjoy it,” Schwarber said. “But there’s still a lot more baseball left. Every single day, trying to help the team to get to where we want to be.”
That’s how nights like this are supposed to sound at Citizens Bank Park.
Phillies 9, Mets 3. And all of it sounded like October.
Schwarber’s blast snapped a 10-game homerless drought that stretched across 48 plate appearances. But if Schwarber owned the headline, Otto Kemp made it memorable too. On his 26th birthday, Kemp homered, stole a base, and went 2-for-3 at the plate. He’s the first Phillie to homer on his birthday since Maikel Franco did it in Toronto on Aug. 26, 2018, and the first to do it at home since Charlie Hayes went deep against the Expos on May 29, 1991.
The Mets managed a pair of runs late—Mark Vientos crushed a 110-mph solo shot in the seventh, and Juan Soto added an RBI in the eighth—but they were more box-score filler than drama.
The Phillies had already built their cushion early, and they did it the hard way: all with two outs. Nick Castellanos doubled home Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto in the first. Kemp and Harrison Bader went back-to-back in the second.
Bader, batting leadoff for the first time since 2023, finished 3-for-5 with a homer, two RBIs, and two runs scored.
Bryson Stott chipped in, too, collecting three hits and reaching the 500-hit milestone for his career.
So here they sit: magic number nine, two more against the Mets this week, then the Royals roll into town for the weekend.
Ranger brilliant. Schwarber historic. Kemp with the birthday blast. Bader and Stott doing their part. And a division title drawing closer by the night.
Nine more. And if this is what nine looks like, the champagne might not be far away.
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