PHOENIX — Ranger Suárez didn’t look back.

Certainly not at the pitch, a slider that hung over the plate before it touched down in the right-field bleachers for a game-breaking three-run homer in the second inning Sunday.

But there wasn’t any point for Suárez — or the Phillies, as a group — to dissect much of anything else from a dud in the desert. After giving up a total of six runs in his previous six starts, Suárez allowed six through the first two innings of a 9-2 drubbing by the Diamondbacks.

If ever there was a start to forget, this was it.

The Phillies (92-64) dropped their first series in nearly a month, since the Aug. 25-27 sweep by the Mets in New York. But with six regular-season games left — all at home, against the playing-out-the-string Marlins and Twins — they maintained a four-game lead over the Dodgers (plus the tiebreaker) for the No. 2 seed in the National League — and a bye through the treacherous wild-card round.

“I want to clinch the bye, for sure,” Bryce Harper said after the Phillies went 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position. “I think that’s the biggest thing for all of us. Obviously there’s some guys playing for some numbers, things like that. But as a team, we need the bye.”

It’s really all that matters. The bye, and staying healthy. Harper was scheduled to get a day off Sunday, but upon further review, he told manager Rob Thomson that he wanted to play. Harper figures the time off can come after the regular season.

So as long as what happened in Arizona stays in Arizona, it will be the furthest thing from anyone’s mind in two weeks when the Phillies open the divisional round and Suárez takes the mound.

Still, it did happen. Suárez yielded eight hits, the loudest courtesy of Corbin Carroll’s three-run homer. But the Diamondbacks’ five-run second inning began innocently enough against the bottom of the order.

Tim Tawa reached on an infield single before Jordan Lawlar worked an eight-pitch walk. Jorge Barrosa, the No. 9 hitter, tapped a bunt single to third base before leadoff man Ketel Marte rifled a two-run single up the middle.

“A lot of bad luck there,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “And also, they made me pay for all the pitches I left in the zone.”

One pitch, in particular.

“Other than Carroll’s home run, I don’t think they hit too many balls that were hard off Ranger,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

After Carroll teed off on the slider, Suárez took a few steps off the mound and asked for a new ball, never looking behind him.

Why bother? Suárez came into the game on a six-start roll, allowing six runs in 36 2/3 innings with 44 strikeouts and only eight walks. He’s up to 153 innings for the season and will almost certainly surpass his career-high (155 1/3 innings in 2022) after his next start.

But after dealing with a low back soreness and fading down the stretch last season, Suárez says he’s healthy and ready for the playoffs. Manager Rob Thomson hasn’t announced the rotation beyond Cristopher Sánchez in Game 1 of the Phillies’ first series, but Suárez is a strong bet for Game 2.

“That’s what we work for, to get to October and perform in the postseason,” Suárez said. “It is exciting, and that’s what we want to do. I think we’ve lacked a little bit in the last couple years, so we all want to perform there. We just want to get that one thing. We want to get it done this year.”

The Diamondbacks (79-77) are improbably still in the wild-card race. After trading pitcher Merrill Kelly and sluggers Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor at the July 31 deadline, they’ve been giving life by the freefalling Mets.

Before the Diamondbacks and Phillies took the field Sunday, the Mets lost again at home. And with the victory, Arizona is one game behind the Mets and a half-game behind the Reds in what could be a photo finish for the last NL wild card.

Diamondbacks lefty Eduardo Rodríguez scattered six hits and shut out the Phillies for six innings. The Phillies finally broke through in the eighth on an RBI single by Nick Castellanos and Weston Wilson’s bases-loaded, two-out walk.

One constant for the Phillies throughout the series: Alec Bohm.

Bohm returned from the injured list Friday and notched two hits. He homered Saturday, then picked up four hits Sunday. Overall, he went 8 for 13 in the three games.

“He’s been great,” Thomson said. “He’s on everything. I’ll probably have to move him up [in the order].”

Maybe that’s something worth remembering if the Phillies get on a roll in October.

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