Sanchez’s Scoreless Streak Snapped, Doesn’t Stop Phillies From Taking Series with 3-2 Victory Over Padres

40,453 fans entered Citizens Bank Park Wednesday night with excitement as Cristopher Sanchez took the mound looking to continue his legendary scoreless streak. Sanchez showed the same dominance that led him to win the National League Player of the Month award in May. Though it came to an end in the 7th inning. The scoreless streak was snapped at 50.2 innings pitched on a Jackson Merrill single to left field, which did not stop the Phillies from winning the ballgame 3-2 and taking the series over the San Diego Padres.

The story of the night, as it has been since this legendary streak started, was the starting pitcher, Sanchez. In Sanchez’s last start, also against the San Diego Padres, he entered Phillies history by breaking the franchise’s consecutive scoreless streak record, surpassing Grover Cleveland Alexander.

To start the game, Sanchez continued his dominance. Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out to begin the night, then Miguel Andujar and Manny Machado each grounded out for an easy 1-2-3 inning. Sanchez wouldn’t allow a baserunner until a two-out walk in the third; afterwards, he forced a Tatis groundout and extended his scoreless streak even further.

That scoreless streak would continue to grow into the seventh inning. After Sanchez got two outs to begin the frame, he then gave up back-to-back hits, including the streak-breaking RBI single from Jackson Merrill. After Merrill drove in the run, the crowd could not hold back from giving Sanchez a loud and long-standing ovation. Sanchez returned the favor by quickly getting the final out to end the seventh and his night.

Sanchez pitched 50.2 consecutive scoreless innings, the fifth-longest streak since 1893. It is the third longest in the live ball era, since 1920. It ranks as a Phillies record. His 34.2 consecutive scoreless innings at Citizens Bank Park is a stadium record. Sanchez’s final line on the night was seven innings pitched, one earned run on four hits and a walk, striking out eight Padres. His season ERA sits at 1.46, the lowest in baseball.

Each generation gets to witness a stretch of stars that will be etched into their memory. For the generation that got to witness the prime of Steve Carlton for over a decade. Next, it was Curt Schilling in the early 1990s. Then, it was witnessing the dominance of Roy Halladay in the early 2010s and the scoreless streak of Cliff Lee in 2011. Now, we get to witness this legendary streak of Sanchez.

Even with his streak ending in the seventh, the game was not over, but merely restarting. Adolis Garcia had one of his best nights so far in a Phillies uniform, putting the Phillies on top 1-0 with an RBI double in the fifth before Merrill’s streak-snapping single tied things up.

Entering the bottom of the seventh, San Diego took out their starter, former Phillie Walker Buehler. Leading off the inning was catcher J.T. Realmuto, who was last seen prior to this game leaving the Dodgers finally on Sunday after taking a pitch off his wrist. Realmuto came back from those days off by blasting a go-ahead home run into left center to give the Phillies the 2-1 lead. Kyle Schwarber then added insurance, stepping up with two outs in the inning, and blasted his league-leading 23rd home run to right field.

The Phillies turned to Brad Keller in the eighth with a 3-1 lead and momentum. Keller, who has been up and down so far with the Phillies, had a down night. Loading the bases, and with two outs in the inning, hit Xander Bogaerts with a pitch that drove in a run and cut the lead down to 3-2.

Keller was able to limit the damage to that one run and turn the ball over to closer Jhoan Duran in the ninth, who came into the game looking to maintain the perfection he had so far this season, going 13-13 in save opportunities heading into Wednesday night. Duran would go on to force a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts to close out the ballgame and notch his 14th save on the season.

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