CLEVELAND — With two out in the seventh inning Saturday, everyone at Progressive Field — including players from both teams — gazed up at the 221-foot wide video screen in left field and pretended to be umpires.

Was José Ramírez safe at second base? Did Trea Turner tag him on the hand? Was the tying run in scoring position, or was the inning over?

The whole thing seemed so … consequential.

And then, with one pitch, Ranger Suárez reminded everyone why it didn’t really matter.

Because while the Phillies held tight to a one-run lead in an eventual 7-1 victory over the Guardians, Suárez controlled the game for seven innings. Even when a replay review upheld the safe call on the field, keeping Ramírez at second base, Suárez struck out Kyle Manzardo on the next pitch to preserve a one-run lead.

“Ranger threw great,” said Bryce Harper, who doubled and banged a two-run homer. “He went out there and did his job, kept everybody off balance, and kept us in the game the whole time.”

Harper helped the Phillies take a bat to a piñata of a game by going deep on a fastball in the strike zone — two rarities, given the way he has been pitched lately — in a six-run eighth inning. And Kyle Schwarber extended his on-base streak to 45 games, tied for fourth in Phillies history.

But let’s discuss that later.

This was all about Suárez, who rebounded from a struggle in his first start off the injured list six days earlier with a more typically calm, cool breeze through a tough lineup.

The Guardians scored 36 runs in their previous six games, including six in the series opener Friday night. But Suárez held them to three hits, all singles. He deployed his sinker, curveball, and change-up to get eight groundouts. At one point, he set down 11 batters in a row.

And in typical fashion when things are going well, Suárez did it all as coolly as the breeze off Lake Erie.

It was a stark contrast from last Sunday. Suárez made his return to the rotation after dealing with a stiff low back in spring training and struggled with his command for 3 2/3 innings at home against the Diamondbacks. In particular, Suárez couldn’t locate his pitches when he threw from the stretch.

One way to resolve that: Don’t put runners on base.

Suárez got through the fifth inning in seven pitches and the sixth inning in eight. When Ramírez singled through the left side with one out in the seventh, it marked the Guardians’ first baserunner since the third inning.

And that’s when Suárez really toughened. He won a seven-pitch duel with Carlos Santana, pesky as ever after at age 39 and in his 16th season. Santana fouled off a sinker and curveball with two strikes before Suárez froze him with a fastball at the knees.

Suárez quickly got ahead with two strikes against Manzardo before lifting his leg and firing a pickoff throw to first base. Ramírez bolted for second. The umpires ruled that he beat Turner’s tag on a throw from Harper, prompting a challenge from the Phillies.

Cue the suspense.

Not for Suárez. While everyone paid rapt attention to the replays on the video board, Suárez stayed loose by throwing warmup pitches. And after the call was upheld, and pitching coach Caleb Cotham made a brief mound visit, Suárez got Manzardo to swing at a slider out of the strike zone.

After getting shut out in the series opener by Guardians starter Gavin Williams and three relievers, the Phillies didn’t put a runner on base through three innings against righty Tanner Bibee.

But the three best hitters in the lineup broke the scoreless stalemate in the fourth. Turner singled through the right side before Harper doubled to left field and Kyle Schwarber punched an RBI single the other way to left.

Schwarber has reached base in 45 consecutive games, tied for the Phillies’ fourth-longest streak since 1900. Mike Schmidt went on a 56-game run in 1981-82, followed by Chuck Klein (49 in 1930), Bobby Abreu (48 in 2000-01), and Odúbel Herrera (45 in 2017-18).

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