PHILADELPHIA -- Cristopher Sánchez waved for help.
He had a small cut on the top of his left thumb in the second inning on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, although nobody in the stands or Phillies’ dugout could see the nick … or the blood splattered on his white pants. They only saw Sánchez summon an athletic trainer to the mound, following his fourth strikeout.
For a moment, everybody held their breath.
“You’re like, ‘Oh, not tonight,’” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said.
Not any night really. But Sánchez was OK. He covered up the cut -- Mattingly described it as a tiny scratch -- then dazzled to complete seven scoreless innings in Tuesday night’s 8-0 victory over the Pirates. The victory moved the Phillies within 2 1/2 games of the Braves for first place in the NL East.
“It happens sometimes when I throw the changeup,” Sánchez said via the team’s interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “It’s no big deal.”
That much became clear on the mound, when Sánchez’s teammates started laughing at him.
“They were just giving me a hard time,” Sánchez said. “Those guys are terrible.”
Sánchez will learn Saturday if he has made his second NL All-Star team. It would be stunning if he does not. Sánchez has been one of Major League Baseball’s best pitchers this season. He had a 50 2/3-innings scoreless streak from late April through early June, which is the fifth-longest single-season scoreless streak in baseball since at least 1893. He is 10-3 with a 2.00 ERA. He entered Tuesday first in MLB with 5.2 bWAR for pitching, and second in MLB with 3.9 fWAR for pitching.
He is an NL Cy Young candidate once again.
In two weeks, Sánchez could even be starting for the NL in the All-Star Game in front of his hometown crowd. He would join Robin Roberts (1950-51, ’53-’55), Curt Simmons (1952, ’57), Steve Carlton (1979), Terry Mulholland (1993), Curt Schilling (1999) and Roy Halladay (2011) as the only Phillies pitchers to start a Midsummer Classic.
“Another goal, another dream come true,” Sánchez said about the possibility. “And the more you think about it, in this beautiful city, the fans deserve that and even more.”
Sánchez had a 1.54 ERA through his first 14 starts this season, but he had allowed 10 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings in his previous three to raise his ERA to 2.13.
He looked more like himself on Tuesday.
“I went out to compete,” Sánchez said. “I think that’s the main difference.”
The Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Justin Crawford slapped a ball down the left-field line for a two-run single. Trea Turner’s double in the seventh inning scored Derek Hill to spark a three-run rally to make it 5-0, and Turner’s two-run homer in the eighth inning extended the lead to 8-0. Turner is batting .345 (19 for 55) in his last 13 games.
Sánchez waved to his family after he walked off the field in the seventh inning. He allowed three hits and two walks to the Pirates. He struck out nine.
“He’s impressive enough,” said Mattingly, asked about Sánchez pitching with the cut on his thumb. “Obviously, he sets the tone tonight for us, attacking the zone, getting ahead in the count, all that. Right? I think that's obviously something we needed.”