The Philadelphia Phillies will look to have a goldfish-like memory after a forgettable 4-2 loss to the San Diego Padres on Friday night. Ranger Suarez, typically dominant on the road in 2025, struggled to find his footing early, and the Phillies’ defense behind him did him no favors. Despite five base hits on the evening, Philadelphia put itself in a position to tie the game before leaving Trea Turner stranded on third base in the eighth inning of a one-run ballgame, before the Padres added a late insurance run in the victory.
Phillies’ Costly Errors in the Second Inning
Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead following a Nick Castellanos home run in the second inning. However, Suarez was unable to secure the shutdown inning, as the Phillies’ defense forced him to pitch more than the requisite three outs.
Alec Bohm knocked down a hard-hit ground ball from Xander Bogaerts to open the inning. Suarez attempted to field a perfect bunt by Jackson Merrill, but ended up throwing the ball away and allowing Bogaerts to reach third base. Jose Iglesias tied the game, 1-1, on a double to right field that scored Bogaerts and advanced Merrill to third base.
San Diego took the lead on a fielder’s choice ground ball from Elias Diaz to score Merrill for a 2-1 Padres advantage. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled to center field to add another run for a 3-1 Padres lead. Tatis Jr. stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error from J.T. Realmuto, but Suarez induced a groundout from Luis Arraez to end the second inning.
Kyle Schwarber’s Statement Swing
In the third inning, Kyle Schwarber smashed his 30th home run of the 2025 season – a no-doubt-about-it, 424-foot blast to deep right center field for a solo trot around the bases. Schwarber becomes only the second Phillies batter to crush 30 home runs before the MLB All-Star break. He joins Phillies icon Mike Schmidt, who hit 31 home runs before the All-Star Game in the 1979 season.
As it stands early on June 12, Schwarber is the only Phillies representative at the 2025 MLB All-Star Game, his third appearance at baseball’s mid-summer classic. With a scheduled start on Saturday against the Padres, Wheeler opted out of appearing in Atlanta. The same goes for last night’s starter (Suarez), who declined an invitation from MLB earlier this week to rest for the second half of the season.
Perhaps the biggest snubs from the All-Star ballot are Cristopher Sanchez and Trea Turner. Sanchez is scheduled to pitch Sunday afternoon’s series finale against San Diego, and that is likely why he has not been elected to appear in Atlanta. Turner, the Phillies’ leading hitter with a .292 average, faced an uphill battle against some of the biggest names in baseball – Elly De La Cruz, Matt Olsen, and Pete Alonso, to name a few – to earn a spot on the bench at the 2025 All-Star Game.
Harper Leaves ‘Em Loaded in the Fifth
Realmuto led off the fifth inning with a single to left field before Bryson Stott hit a sinking line drive towards the feet of Tatis Jr. in right field. While he was unable to make the catch, Tatis Jr. recorded the force out at second base as Realmuto had to freeze on the basepaths and couldn’t beat the throw from the outfield. Marsh flied out for the second out of the inning before back-to-back walks loaded the bases for one of the best hitters in the game.
On the first pitch of the at-bat, Harper smacked a center-cut slider down the first base line, but right at Luis Arraez, resulting in a disappointing third out and an end to the scoring opportunity with the Phillies still trailing, 3-2.
Turner Being Stopped at Third Leaves Questions in Eighth
Padres reliever Adrian Morejon, Wheeler’s announced replacement at the 2025 MLB All-Star game, entered in the eighth inning of a tight ballgame. He walked the lead-off hitter (Turner) before a single from Harper moved Turner into scoring position. Alec Bohm lasered a ball to right field, which Turner did not get a good jump on, resulting in the Phillies’ shortstop being held at third base by coach Dusty Wathan as impending doom filled the Delaware Valley.
Castellanos hit a weak ground ball that required a heads-up fielding effort from Morejon to record the force out at home, before Max Kepler popped out to Iglesias as shortstop with the Phillies to end the threat. The Phillies quietly accepted their 4-2 loss with a 1-2-3 inning against Padres closer Robert Suarez in the ninth inning.
With the loss, the Phillies’ record falls to 54-40 with a 0.5-game lead over the New York Mets in the National League East. San Diego improves to 51-43, but sits in third place in a hyper-competitive NL West with the Los Angeles Dodgers (56-39) and the San Francisco Giants (52-43).
Wheels Up on Saturday Evening
Zack Wheeler goes for win number 10 during the middle game of the three-game series in San Diego on Saturday at 7:35 pm EST. He will be opposed by Padres starter Yu Darvish, who is 3-1 with a 2.15 ERA in his career against Philadelphia.
The Georgia-native shut down San Diego on June 30 when he tossed an eight-inning, 10K performance in a 4-0 Phillies win. It was the first time Wheeler shut down the Padres in impressive fashion. The 35-year-old starter took the ball in Game 1 of the 2022 NLCS in San Diego.
He allowed one hit over six shutout innings, the first Phillies pitcher to do that in the postseason since Roy Halladay’s no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in 2010. Wheeler led the whole way after a lead-off home run from Schwarber in the top of the first inning of a 2-0 Phillies victory.
Notes & Quotes
“If they’re good enough, then name them an All-Star,” Schwarber told MLB.com. “Trea [Turner] … he’s probably the best shortstop in the National League right now. It’s unfortunate. I wish my teammates were there, but we know what we have. I think we’re grateful for what we have.”
“Oh, that was the right [call],” Rob Thomson said postgame via NBC Sports Philadelphia. “He’s got to see the ball through… ball was hit on a line, and there is no way he [Turner] scores on that with the way Tatis can throw.”
“He was great,” Thomson said of Suarez’s performance. “Even that second inning, infield hit, sac bunt, and Iglesias inside-outs a ball down the right field line. I thought he was good all night. [Ranger] threw strikes again … kept people off balance, and a lot of soft contact. He gave us exactly what he needed.”
Mandatory Credit: Denis Poroy-Imagn Images
