Suarez's career-high 12 Ks and Schwarber's 50th HR power Phillies to 9-3 win

PHILADELPHIA - Ranger Suarez was masterful.

The Phillies' starter carved up the New York Mets lineup across six shutout innings and racked up a career-best 12 strikeouts, while Kyle Schwarber continued his National League MVP campaign. Schwarber smashed his 50th homer of the season in a dominant 9-3 Phillies win over their division rivals Tuesday evening at Citizens Bank Park.

The Mets, now nine games behind the Phillies in the NL East, simply had no answer for Suarez at the plate. Juan Soto and Pete Alonso went a combined 0-for-6 with six strikeouts against the southpaw, while the Mets mustered just three walks and a single against the lefty. Suarez needed 99 pitches to cruise through six innings before tipping his cap to the 43,000-plus fans giving him a standing ovation as he made his way to the first base dugout to end his outing.

"I've said this many times, the heartbeat never changes," Manager Rob Thomson said.

"He's his own man and he goes out there and he just pitches. When he is on, he's really something. He kept everybody off balanced. All of his pitches were good, his command was good. Lost the plate a little bit in the fifth but gave us six strong innings."

Phillies strike first

Offensively, Nick Castellanos, who is heating up at the plate as he adjusts to being part of a platoon in right field, started the scoring by wrapping a ball into the left field corner, giving Philadelphia a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Mets' starter Sean Manaea.

In the second inning with two outs, in his second game back since rejoining the club, Otto Kemp treated himself on his birthday with a solo shot to add to the lead. Harrison Bader followed with a line drive homer down the left field line to go back-to-back, doubling the Phillies' lead 4-0.

"He's been swinging the bat great, playing great defense, he's just been playing great," Thomson said on Bader.

Mark Vientos hit his 17th homer of the season to lead off the seventh inning against David Robertson to make it 4-1, but the 40-year-old veteran settled in, retiring the next three batters he faced. Schwarber got that run back and then some, clobbering his 50th homer of the season to the deepest part of the ballpark for a three-run shot to make it 7-1.

The slugger earned a curtain call after his titanic blast and became just the second player in franchise history to hit 50 home runs in a season, joining Ryan Howard (56, 2006) as the only other Phillie to reach the milestone.

"It was a great night. We got another one tomorrow. I thought our offense was really good. Ranger was really good, defense was good. We played a really good game," Thomson said.

More notes

Bryson Stott picked up his 500th career hit in the win with an infield single in the seventh inning. He finished with three hits on the night, marking his fourth three-hit game of the season. The second baseman is hitting .368 over his last 11 games.

Kemp loves hitting at Citizens Bank Park. With his homer and two-hit night, the rookie is hitting .325 in 77 at-bats inside the friendly confines. Away from CBP, he is hitting just .137 in 73 at-bats.

The Phillies are now 13-4 against the Mets at home since 2023.

The magic number for the Phillies to clinch the NL East is nine.