Christopher Sanchez Notches Second Complete Game of Season as Phillies Clinch Series Win Over Nationals
Photo via the Philadelphia Phillies on X
Tonight, the Phillies honored David Montgomery, the former president of the team that passed away in 2019. As of today, the deepest part of the ballpark—where it is 409 feet from home plate to the wall in left-center field—is known as Monty’s Angle, as the dimension change was proposed by the late Montgomery. With a sea of Phillies fans afloat in the audience and Phillies Wall-of-Fame players on the field, everyone was excited to honor Montgomery, and Christopher Sanchez was no exception. And it is not only because Montgomery served his team for all those years, but it’s mainly for the aforementioned Monty’s Angle, which helped Sanchez throw his second shutout of 2024.
After a start where he allowed 12 hits and seven runs in 4.2 innings against the Diamondbacks, many people were questioning whether Sanchez was beginning to experience fatigue. Some were even calling for a phantom IL stint, and their reasons were justified. Sanchez posted a 6.59 ERA in five starts in July and has racked up 140.1 innings thus far in 2024, which is exactly 41 more innings than he threw at the major-league level last season.
For now, at least, Sanchez has proven his doubters wrong. With just 99 pitches, Sanchez threw nine full innings, allowing just two hits, walking nobody, and striking out four. 71 of his 99 pitches were strikes, and Sanchez forced 15 groundouts throughout the game. He, with some help from David Montgomery, recorded seven outs from fly balls. With his lethal sinker-changeup combo working like a charm, hard contact was coming at a premium.
“Sanchie was fantastic,” Phillies’ skipper Rob Thomson told the media after the game. “It was dominant… [I’ve] said it so many times. He’s grown up. He’s a man. He commands the baseball, he attacks, [and] he’s not afraid.”
Unfortunately, one of the hits Sanchez allowed was a solo home run by Nationals’ outfielder Alex Call, breaking Sanchez’s then-perfect game in the top of the fourth inning. However, the Phillies’ offense was not discouraged by the Nationals’ early lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Nick Castellanos hit an RBI double in the right-center field gap, scoring Alec Bohm and knotting the game up at one apiece.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Phillies played some good, old-fashioned small ball. It began with a lead-off double from Trea Turner, in what turned out to be the only extra-base hit of the inning. Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Edmundo Sosa, and Johan Rojas knocked each other in with RBI singles, and with the flip of a switch, the Phillies had a commanding four-run lead.
“We hit some balls hard,” Thomson said. “We’re putting together some pretty good at-bats right now.”
And compared to what we’ve seen from the Phillies over the past month, “pretty good” might be an understatement. In each of their last four games, the Phillies have reached double-digits in hits and are averaging nearly eight runs scored per game.
Normally, the narrative would have shifted—Sanchez gets pulled after six strong, the offense stops after the run in the fourth, and the bullpen turns the tie into a deficit. Luckily, as the Phillies appear to be turning a corner, tonight did not fit the theme. And that is all thanks to Christopher Sanchez, who faced just one batter over the minimum after Call’s home run.
Sanchez, who is fairly critical of himself, still meant nothing but business after the game, even after tying the league lead for complete games by a pitcher: “As you can see, I haven’t had the greatest results since the all-star break. My goal today was to go out and compete for this team.”
Well, Cris, you did a lot more than just compete tonight. Perhaps you’re missing an “L?”
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