Starting nod in All-Star Game a fitting prize for tireless Sánchez

PHILADELPHIA -- Cristopher Sánchez is home, and he is starting for the National League in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game presented by Mastercard.

“This feels really special,” he said via an interpreter on Monday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park. “Really exciting. Even more so being here at home. So I'm just super excited. I can come here tomorrow and just take it all in. Going to lean in and just enjoy it overall.”

National League All-Star Game manager Dave Roberts announced on Sunday that Sánchez would start for the NL, becoming the first Phillies pitcher since Roy Halladay in 2011 and the seventh pitcher in Phillies history to start a Midsummer Classic. Curt Schilling (1999), Terry Mulholland (1993), Steve Carlton (1979), Curt Simmons (1952, ’57) and Robin Roberts (1950-51, ’53-55) are the others.

“It's an honor for me,” Sánchez said. “I wouldn't say I'm nervous. I feel at home. I'm at home here, and that's a point in favor for us, like being at home. The joy that the fans bring and all the energy that our fans bring to the stadium, it's something that motivates me every single day.”

Sánchez will join teammates Brandon Marsh and Kyle Schwarber in the starting lineup. Fans elected Marsh as a starter. Schwarber finished second in the player vote, and he will replace injured slugger Shohei Ohtani as the designated hitter. Phillies teammates Bryce Harper, Jesús Luzardo and Jhoan Duran are also on the team.

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Sánchez’s honor came as no surprise. He is 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA. He leads all pitchers in Major League Baseball with 5.4 bWAR. He is second with 4.0 fWAR, trailing only Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski (4.4).

Sánchez also had a 50 2/3-innings scoreless streak from late April through early June, which is the fifth-longest single-season scoreless streak since at least 1893.

It’s hard to believe, but the Rays traded Sánchez to the Phillies in November 2019 because of a 40-man roster crunch. At one point he lost velocity and couldn’t throw a strike to save his life. He didn’t like it.

So, he worked.

“I've been working throughout this from the beginning of my career,” Sánchez said. “At the early stages of my career, I was just a thrower, if you could say so. I think it's just something that you pick up through the years when you work through the years.

“It's been a lot of work on that with my breathing and taking advice from the past generations. I took a lot of advice from Pedro Martínez and from other Dominican pitchers. You know, I think it's just about working, maintaining that throughout the years.”

And because of the work, because of the lessons he has learned from Martínez and others, Sánchez is ready to make one of the biggest starts of his life. It is an exhibition, but it firmly establishes himself as one of the game’s truly elite pitchers.

“I think this could be described as the best moment in my career,” Sánchez said.