Phillies Defeat Pirates for Sixth Straight Series Win Behind Complete Game Shutout from Cristopher Sanchez
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The Phillies continue to roll, and it’s in large part due to another magnificent Cristopher Sanchez start.
It is always incredible to watch the Phillies send out Cristopher Sanchez every fifth day, as the left-hander has cemented himself as one of, if not the best, starting pitchers in all of baseball. While the first seven starts of the year for Sanchez were good, not great, the month of May has been dominated by the left-hander.
Taking on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of the team’s Rivalry Weekend match-up, Sanchez went to work, having a career day at PNC Park, tossing a 13-strikeout, complete game. It’s the second career complete game shutout for Sanchez, and the 13 strikeouts set a new career high for the left-hander.
Sanchez became just the second pitcher in Phillies’ history to throw a complete game shutout with 0 walks and 13 or more strikeouts, the previous being Vince Velasquez’s 16-strikeout game in 2016. The strikeouts were coming all afternoon, on every single pitch that he threw. Seven came from his outstanding changeup, four from his sinker, and he even grabbed two from his not-so-much-used slider.
Sanchez spoke postgame about how great he feels at this point in the season and how great it feels throwing and maxing out all three of his pitches when he’s on the mound.
“The slider is working great outside and in the zone, back door slider as well,” said Sanchez. “Changeup working great down and in, and the sinker I’ve just been aggressive with the sinker.”
It was an incredible day for the Phillies and Sachez as a whole, who just continue to dominate this season after having a few rough starts to open the year. His ERA has dropped to 1.82, the sixth-best in all of baseball, is tied for the most strikeouts in baseball with 80, and leads all of baseball in innings pitched with 64.1.
While the individual accomplishments are great for Sanchez, and at this rate will be in line to potentially win his first Cy Young, Sanchez spoke to the media on how he just continues to take things one game at a time and is just doing his best to help the Phillies win.
“I’m really excited about my first complete game of the season today, but you know, my mentality and our mentality here is to keep competing,” Sanchez said. “We need to just keep going, keep doing the best, giving the best of ourselves. It’s not about two or three starts, it’s about consistency, so we just have to keep going.
A three-run bomb off the bat of Bryce Harper, a two-run double from Kyle Schwarber, and an RBI-double from Trea Turner were all the offense the Phillies scored, but Sanchez only needed one run to work with. With the win, the Phillies moved back to 23-23 on the season, getting back to a .500 record for the first time since April 8th.
Unlike the previous night, things got rolling right away for the Phillies as Trea Turner reached on a leadoff single and Kyle Schwarber. While he missed a home run the previous night that would’ve given the Phillies the lead, Harper didn’t miss in the first, absolutely destroying a 3-1 fastball to straightaway center field for a 457-foot three-run bomb.
It’s the longest home run for Harper since 2022, when he smacked a 460-foot homer against the Brewers, and it made up for just missing a Grand Slam the previous game.
While the offense woke up early, Cristopher Sanchez’s pitching looked just as good early on, thanks to back-to-back strikeouts of Oneil Cruz and Konnor Griffin and a groundout from Bryan Reynolds. The Phillies continued to attack starting pitcher Bubba Chandler in the top of the second, working two walks and putting Schwarber up with a chance to extend the league.
The long ball has been the way Schwarber has produced his RBIs over the past 10 games, but today the Schwarbarian smoked a double down the right field line, scoring two, extending the Phillies’ lead to five.
Back out on the mound, Sanchez continued to dominate, sending the Pirates down in order in the second and third, breezing through the first Pirates lineup the first time through. In the fourth, after retiring the first two batters, Reynolds smoked a double to right for the Pirates’ first hit of the afternoon. With a runner in scoring position, Sanchez used his patented changeup to send Marcell Ozuna down for the second time and his sixth strikeout of the game.
While the Phillies threatened thanks to an Alec Bohm double in the fourth, they were unable to add any insurance for Sanchez in the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh. Thanksully for the Phillies, Sanchez continued to deal through the innings, not even needing more runs to keep the lead.
He picked up a clutch double play in the fifth, sent down the Pirates in order in the fifth, and after giving up a leadoff double to Griffin in the seventh, picked up two more strikeouts to keep Pittsburgh scoreless through seven.
In the top of the eighth, after Justin Crawford worked a two-out walk, Turner smoked a double down into the right field corner, making it 6-0 Philadelphia. Like the bottom of the seventh, Sanchez allowed a leadoff hit in the eighth, but worked around it once again, striking out Brandon Lowe and Jared Triolo and getting Henry David to fly out for eight shutout innings.
Sitting at 91 pitches, interim to the interim manager Dusty Wathan, who was filling in for Don Mattingly, who was attending his son’s graduation, sent Sanchez back out for the ninth to finish the game.
After getting Cruz to ground out to start the inning, Sanchez allowed back-to-back singles, putting two runners on with just one out. Sanchez worked around it, striking Ozuna out for the fourth time on the afternoon for his 13th and new career-high, and got a groundout from Nick Yorke to finish off the game, with the Phillies winning 6-0 with Sanchez tossing a 13-strikeout complete game shutout.
The fill-in manager, Dusty Wathan, spoke postgame about how incredible Sanchez was in his managerial debut and how incredible the evolution Sanchez has made since coming to the Phillies organization back in 2019.
“It’s been something to watch, it’s special,” Wathan said. “I think when we first got him from Tampa, he would throw bullpens in spring training. I saw him throw bullpens, and there were a lot of balls off the chain link fence. And for a guy to make the transformation that he’s made is something special. You don’t see it very often. To me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime transformation to go from where he was to being one of the best pitchers in baseball.”
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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