TORONTO — It wasn’t the usual scoreless start fans have seen from him lately, but Phillies pitcher Cristopher Sánchez still delivered an impressive performance on Monday night at Rogers Centre.
After giving up his first earned run in over 50 2/3 innings against San Diego last Wednesday, Sánchez allowed two earned runs over seven innings in the opening game of the series, leading to a 5-2 victory against the Blue Jays.
With a 5-0 lead, Sánchez let the first run slip through in the bottom of the third when Myles Straw hit a double, followed by groundouts from Tyler Heineman and Yohendrick Piñango.
Ernie Clement then took an 0-1 fastball deep into left field for a solo home run in the fifth inning to score another run.
The Blue Jays seemed ready to score again when Piñango led off the sixth with a double and advanced to third after right fielder Adolis García mishandled the ball. However, Sánchez struck out George Springer, Nathan Lukes, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., escaping that situation while celebrating with clenched fists as he returned to the dugout.
The Blue Jays threatened once more in the seventh inning with runners on first and second and two outs. Sánchez appeared to signal interim manager Don Mattingly about wanting to stay on for one more batter. The manager agreed, and it paid off as Sánchez got Brandon Valenzuela to ground out to shortstop Trea Turner to finish off his outing on pitch number 107.
Sánchez gave up four hits, walked one batter, and struck out 10. This marked the fourth time this season that he reached double-digit strikeouts in a game.
“I don’t like leaving guys on base and I felt great today, even though I had close to 100 pitches,” Sánchez said postgame.
“A big thank you to the manager for trusting me with that, and I told him that after the game.”
This latest outing also helped stabilize a Phillies starting rotation that struggled over the weekend against the White Sox by allowing 16 earned runs during their series win.
One reason why Sánchez has been so effective is his ability to pitch deep into games. He has now gone at least seven innings in seven consecutive starts since May 5.
“I think it’s about mixing my pitches,” Sanchez said. “I try to gauge what they’re looking for. I play around with different pitches we use and their locations. Change their sights a little bit during at-bats.”
Praising his rotation before this game, Mattingly noted that this performance was exactly what he expected from Sánchez.
“There’s always a sense Cristopher is going to be on track,” Mattingly said.
“You feel like he’s going to go six or seven innings every time he gets the ball; if he doesn’t, you’re like, ‘Whoa.’”
Mattingly echoed his pregame support after this win and mentioned feeling good about leaving Sánchez in during that seventh inning.
“Sanchey is easy to trust,” Mattingly said.
“It doesn’t matter who’s up there with him; you feel confident about him in any situation.”
On offense, the team supported Sánchez well by scoring five runs on five hits while he was still pitching, putting him in line for his eighth win when he exited.
Brad Keller pitched a perfect eighth inning while Jhoan Duran secured his 16th save without any misses this season as they wrapped up their victory. Outfielder Adolis García put them ahead early in the second inning with his seventh home run of this season against Blue Jays starter Patrick Corbin. That homer was also García’s third within just five games. Keenly aware of how strong Sanchez has been on mound duty lately, García emphasized how critical it was for them to get runs early.
“It’s really important for us to score as many runs as we can when we have Sanchey on the bump because he’s a great pitcher,” García stated through translator Diego D’Aniello.
“Whenever we have him pitching like this type of pitcher is capable of being it’s almost guaranteed we’ll win if we give him some run support early.”
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Brad Keller pitched a perfect eighth inning while Jhoan Duran secured his 16th save without any misses this season as they wrapped up their victory. Outfielder Adolis García put them ahead early in the second inning with his seventh home run of this season against Blue Jays starter Patrick Corbin. That homer was also García’s third within just five games. Keenly aware of how strong Sanchez has been on mound duty lately, García emphasized how critical it was for them to get runs early.
“It’s really important for us to score as many runs as we can when we have Sanchey on the bump because he’s a great pitcher,” García stated through translator Diego D’Aniello.
“Whenever we have him pitching like this type of pitcher is capable of being it’s almost guaranteed we’ll win if we give him some run support early.”
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