There were some reasons to be happier about his outing than the naked numbers would indicate. While he struggled with command, especially with his changeup, he walked only one. He scattered his hits. And he was facing a high degree of difficulty; Coors Field is one of baseball’s funkiest venues for pitchers. He threw 72 pitches, 44 for strikes.
“So to watch him battle through that and then get outs, I think we got what we wanted out of him today.” Bryce Harper made it unanimous. “He wasn’t Rangeresque. But we’re just happy to have him back out there,” he said. After winning their previous two games on late-inning comebacks, this time the Phillies scored four times in the top of the first with two hits and four walks against Colorado starter Ryan Feltner. They then had to hold on as the Rockies chipped away at Suarez.