PHILADELPHIA -- Cristopher Sánchez couldn’t have been more fired up.
He had been exceptional through six innings in Tuesday night’s 9-1 victory over the A’s at Citizens Bank Park. He had allowed one hit. He had hit a batter. But he mostly looked like the NL Cy Young candidate he expects himself to be.
But then Sánchez allowed a pair of singles to start the seventh inning.
The Phillies’ offense had been sputtering since a six-run first inning on Sunday in Miami. Bryce Harper’s solo home run in the third inning on Tuesday was the game’s only run to that point, so they needed Sánchez to get out of this.
He did. He struck out Tyler Soderstrom swinging on a 1-2 changeup for the first out. Soderstrom hopped up and down after swinging over the pitch, perhaps expressing the frustration of a hitter knowing that a changeup is coming but he still could not hit it.
Austin Wynns grounded out to Alec Bohm on a first-pitch sinker for the second out.
Darell Hernaiz struck out swinging on a 3-2 changeup to end the inning. Hernaiz let the bat drop out of his hands as he finished his back swing.
It’s a feeling hitters know too well when they face Sánchez.
Sánchez yelled as he walked off the mound. He slapped his glove a few times.
It was a huge spot and he delivered. Sánchez allowed three hits, walked one and struck out 10 in eight scoreless innings.
It was his best start of the season, at the very least since Opening Day when he struck out 10 and allowed three hits in six scoreless innings against the Rangers. Sánchez entered Tuesday’s start 2-2 with a 2.90 ERA. He was tied with teammate Jesús Luzardo for third in the National League with 1.2 WAR, according to FanGraphs.
But Sánchez also had walked 13 batters in 40 1/3 innings in his seven starts, giving him his highest walk rate (7.2 percent) since 2022 (9.6 percent) and his highest WHIP (1.51) since 2021 (1.82), when he had trouble throwing strikes as a rookie.
Mostly, the walks didn’t hurt him. But he just didn’t seem to be on.
He was on against the A’s.