PHILADELPHIA -- Consider Ranger Suárez ready for October.

The Phillies southpaw stifled a potential postseason foe for the second straight start and Kyle Schwarber joined the 50-homer club in Tuesday night's 9-3 victory over the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. The victory pushed Philadelphia's (85-60) lead over New York (76-69) atop the NL East to nine games with 17 to play.

Suárez racked up a career-high 12 strikeouts while allowing only one hit over six scoreless innings against the Mets. Half of those 12 strikeouts came against the Mets' star duo of Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, each of whom went 0-for-3 with three K's against Suárez.

“It feels great,” Suárez said of setting a career high. “I don't usually strike out a lot of guys, I'm more of a pitch-to-contact guy. But every time

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