PHILADELPHIA — Struck by a 106.1 mph line drive on his pitching hand, the at all times unflappable Ranger Suárez rapidly recovered, picked up the ball and lobbed a throw to first for the ultimate out of the highest of the second inning within the Phillies’ 6-1 win over the Cardinals on Saturday evening at Residents Financial institution Park.
Then, all consideration turned to Suárez’s pitching hand.
Off to among the finest begins in Main League historical past, the left-hander winced in ache and coated his face along with his glove as he walked slowly again to the dugout. Suárez then retreated down the dugout steps with assistant athletic coach Joe Rauch — and didn’t return for the third inning.
The Phillies mentioned the preliminary analysis is a left hand contusion. Suárez is present process additional analysis.
Suárez’s early departure put an abrupt damper on an evening that featured yet one more quick begin by the group with the perfect document in baseball. The Phillies jumped out to a 3-0 first-inning lead in opposition to Cardinals ace Sonny Grey, due to an Alec Bohm two-run double and an RBI single by Nick Castellanos.
However the buzz from the sellout crowd of 44,668 rapidly dissipated when Playing cards left fielder Alec Burleson ripped a comebacker off Suárez to finish the highest of the second. Suárez struck out two batters over two hitless and scoreless innings previous to exiting, decreasing his season ERA to 1.70 to go along with a 9-1 document and 79 strikeouts.