Phillies avoid a major gut-punch with Ranger Suarez injury update

It's time to let out a big sigh of relief, Philadelphia.

The entire city of Philadelphia has been collectively holding their breath since the moment Ranger Suarez was hit with a comebacker. Suarez would exit the game, grimacing in obvious pain, as he recorded the final out of the second inning on Saturday.

But the results have come back from his X-Ray and Philadelphia couldn't be much happier.

Phillies' Ranger Suarez's X-Ray is negative following scary comebacker injury

The results have come back from the X-Ray and they're negative. Philadelphia and Suarez really dodged a bullet there. When dealing with hand injuries and comebackers, things could turn very wrong, very quickly. Luckily for the Phillies, it's just a bruise.

There's still some substantial swelling to the pitching hand of the lefty, but that's all that it is. He shouldn't hit the long-term injured list, as the Phillies will just need to wait for the swelling to subside in order to slot him back in the rotation. Suarez is unsure if he will be ready to make his next start, but it all comes down to the swelling.

Major crisis avoided for a pitcher that's in the midst of a Cy Young campaign.

Suarez is 9-1 on the year, boasting a 1.70 ERA and a 0.80 WHIP. He's allowing an impressive 5.4 hits per nine, 43 hits in 74 innings, as well as striking out over a batter an inning. The dominance has been unquestioned at the top of this Philadelphia rotation.

Suarez's Baseball Savant chart looks absolutely ridiculous as well, with the advanced analytics supporting that this success isn't by accident.

The southpaw ranks among the game's elite in xERA, xBA, average exit velocity, GroundBall%, HardHit%, and Barrel%, among many other statistics.

To break that down a bit, Suarez isn't getting hit hard, at all. When he does get hit, it's soft and on the ground. This combination of two things results in one of the best expected batting average against in the league. Pair that with his lack of walks and you have one of the hardest pitchers to score on in 2024.

This Ranger Suarez injury is truly the best case scenario. So much can go wrong when you're struck in the hand with a liner. But for Suarez, things went right. We'll see him back out there on the mound soon.