Ranger Suarez struck out a career-high 12 batters and Kyle Schwarber hit his 50th homer as the Philadelphia Phillies topped the visiting New York Mets 9-3 on Tuesday.
Suarez (12-6) tossed six scoreless innings for the Phillies, allowing just a hit and three walks. Otto Kemp homered on his 26th birthday and Harrison Bader also went deep as part of a 3-for-5 night for the hosts.
Mets starter Sean Manaea (1-3) was charged with four runs and five hits over five innings. Mark Vientos’ home run highlighted a quiet night for the visitors.
Since getting swept by the Mets at Citi Field last month, Philadelphia (85-60) has won nine of its last 12 games to take a nine-game lead in the NL East. New York (76-69) has lost eight of 12 over that same stretch.
Suarez struck out Juan Soto and Pete Alonso as part of a 1-2-3 first inning then punched out Brandon Nimmo and Starling Marte in the following frame. He struck out two more batters in the third inning, then struck out Soto, Alonso and Vientos in a dominant fourth.
In the fifth, Suarez allowed two walks and a hit but struck out Jose Siri to escape the jam.
The lefty punctuated his night with strikeouts of Soto and Alonso to end the sixth.
Nick Castellanos’ two-run double off Manaea opened the scoring in the first inning before the Phillies hit back-to-back homers in the second. Kemp drilled a homer to left-center, then Bader followed suit with a line drive over the wall in left.
Vientos’ seventh-inning home run got the Mets on the scoreboard.
The Phillies tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the frame on Schwarber’s blast, marking just the second time in franchise history that a player has reached 50 home runs in a season. Bryson Stott and Bader singled ahead of Schwarber, who sent a 3-1 pitch from Justin Hagenman over the wall in center field to make it 7-1.
