MILWAUKEE -- Ranger Suárez turned his left ankle, stumbled off the mound and landed hard on his left wrist.

He appeared to be hurt.

The left-hander suffered a nasty spill trying to field a dribbler in the fourth inning of Monday night’s 6-2 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field, keeping the Phillies’ magic number to win the NL East at five with 12 games to play. Phillies manager Rob Thomson and an athletic trainer jogged onto the infield to check on Suárez, who eventually got up, finished the inning and pitched the fifth.

Suárez is OK.

But what to make of his fifth start since returning from the injured list? He allowed four hits, three runs and three walks and struck out five in five innings. He got 12 swings-and-misses, which were his most since he got 13 on July 6. But two of the batters he walked scored. He threw 104 pitches, the first time he had thrown 100-plus pitches since May 26. But he threw 104 because he got into six three-ball counts.

"I think I was battling myself tonight,” Suárez said through the team’s interpreter.

Suárez needs to win this battle soon. He will make two more starts before the postseason: Saturday night against the Mets at Citi Field, and Sept. 27 in Washington.

In those two starts, the Phillies hope to see the pitcher who made his first NL All-Star team in July, and not the one who has been up and down the past few weeks. Perhaps the Phillies’ greatest strength entering the postseason is that they have four healthy All-Star-caliber pitchers in the rotation in Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sánchez and Suárez.

If Suárez isn’t clicking, it levels the playing field a bit.

"First of all, we have to get there,” Suárez said. “I’m not going to discuss that right now. But as a pitcher, what you want is to go out and go as long as you can, throw as many innings as you can for the team. Even in the playoffs, it would be a pleasure as a pitcher to go as long as I can and throw as many innings as I can for the team as well."

Asked what he thinks he needs to do to return to form, Suárez said, “I think possibly executing a little better -- those 0-2, 1-2 pitches and finishing off those counts. I think that’s going to be one of those goals that I’m going to set for myself.”

Sure enough, Suárez had 16 two-strike counts on Monday, but only five strikeouts.

Thomson said before the game that he hoped to see the fastball velocity Suárez had in his last start with the command he showed two starts ago, when he pitched five scoreless innings against the Marlins on Sept. 5.

His velocity was up a bit, but still down compared to his season averages.

"I think the stuff is a little bit down, I do,” Thomson said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not going to come back. I think it will. Again, it’s like his third rehab start. I think he’s going to get better, and I trust him."

Physically, Thomson said he thinks Suárez is in shape, compared to the first half of the season, and that he is not suffering from any lingering effects from a lower back injury that sidelined him for a month.

But the results are striking. Suárez was 10-2 with a 1.83 ERA in his first 16 starts through June 25. He has a 5.96 ERA in nine starts since.

"I feel good right now,” Suárez said. “I’m not going to complain about that. I feel good physically. I threw 104 pitches tonight, so that says a lot about that right now.”