RING THE BELL BABY. The Phillies won their fifth game in a row yesterday, taking the Saturday matinee by a final score of 3-0. Ranger Suarez pitched the best game of his career, throwing his first career complete-game shutout, powering the Phillies to a series win. After a Braves win last night, the Phillies sit just 1.5 games back of Atlanta in the NL East with just 7 games to play.

The Phillies took the lead early yesterday, with two of their three runs coming in the bottom half of the third inning. Matt Vierling, who was playing in AAA for a good portion of the season, came up to the plate with the score sitting at 0-0. Vierling would hit his first career MLB home-run, and man did he get a hold of this one.

The scorching hot Phillies offense wasn’t done, specifically this inning. The NL MVP, Bryce Harper, stepped up to the plate just a few batters later and wanted to join in on the home-run fun himself.

The offense got some runs on the board, but they didn’t need to do much. Ranger Suarez pitched one of the best starts from any Phillies pitcher this whole season. Suarez tallied 9 innings pitched, allowing just 4 hits, and striking out 7 batters. The move of Suarez to a starting role has been the best move made by the Phils this year. Ranger has been lights out every game he’s pitched, and yesterday was no different.

Ranger Suarez would throw his first-ever complete game, and his first-ever complete game shutout as well. Everything was clicking for Suarez and JT yesterday, throwing just 97 pitches in 9 innings. The chemistry between the two was extremely fun to watch, and if this team makes the playoffs, you’ll be seeing it again very soon at the Bank.

Brad Miller would stroke an RBI single to left field in the bottom of the 5th, but that was just insurance that wasn’t needed at that point. Miller’s RBI would move the game to 3-0 in our favor, and it would stick at that final for the rest of the game.

Suarez was dominant, the Phillies bats came through again, and the team collected their fifth win in a row. Everything is clicking at the right time for the Fightin’s, who now sit just 1.5 games back of the Atlanta Braves. The last regular-season game takes place at Citizens Bank today, as the Phillies face off against the Pirates in the series finale at 1:00. A bullpen game will be in action today, with the Phils looking to continue closing the gap in the race for the NL East.

RING. THE. BELL. The Bank needs every single one of us today. Don’t let today be the last Phillies game at Citizens Bank this season.

Mandatory Credit: Philadelphia Phillies