Sánchez tagged for season-high six runs as Cubs walk off Phillies

CHICAGO -- Cristopher Sánchez entered the Phillies’ Thursday afternoon series finale against the Cubs at Wrigley Field with a sparkling 1.59 ERA. But what that number didn’t indicate was how many of Sánchez’s starts have involved the Philly southpaw navigating through tons of traffic.

Through his first five starts of the season, Sánchez had successfully avoided taking on much damage despite allowing more baserunners than he’s used to. On Thursday, that trend came to an end.

Chicago jumped all over the left-hander in a three-run third inning, tallying five straight hits. One of those knocks -- Michael Busch’s three-run blast that marked the first time Sánchez was taken deep by a left-handed hitter this year -- had a struggling Phillies offense once again facing an early hole.

Sánchez allowed another homer to Ian Happ in the fourth, and while he was still able to pitch into the sixth inning, he departed with a line of six earned runs on 5 1/3 frames. He finished with just four strikeouts, by far his lowest single-game total of the season. The 12 hits he allowed matched a career high.

Though the Phillies put up their best offensive effort of the series and tied the game with a late five-run rally, a 10th-inning walk-off RBI single from Dansby Swanson squashed their hopes and pushed their losing streak to nine straight with an 8-7 defeat.

The excess of baserunners Sánchez dealt with Thursday was not a new development from this season. He allowed 29 baserunners over his previous three starts, putting at least nine men on base in each of those outings.

The red flag on Thursday, however, was the frequency at which the Cubs were getting on.

Chicago’s five-hit third followed a four-hit second inning in which Sánchez was peppered with a string of singles. Dansby Swanson’s sac fly was the only blemish from that frame, but it did little to hide the fact that the Cubs tallied four or more hits against Sánchez in back-to-back innings.

How rare is it for the southpaw to give up that many knocks in one frame? Sánchez entered Thursday with 564 career innings on his résumé, and he’d allowed at least four hits in just five of them. The last time it happened was the fourth inning of his start against the Mets on Aug. 25 of last season.

Until Thursday, that same outing marked the last time Sánchez allowed more than four earned runs in a given start.