PHILADELPHIA -- It's not often a pitcher gets a standing ovation for giving up a game-tying hit in the seventh inning.
Then again, it's not often anyone does what Cristopher Sánchez has over the past five weeks.
Sánchez's historic scoreless streak finally came to an end on Wednesday night, when the Phillies ace allowed an RBI single in the seventh inning of a 3-2 victory over the Padres at Citizens Bank Park. That snapped his streak of 50 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings, which is the longest in Phillies history -- and the fifth-longest single-season streak since 1893 (when the mound moved to its current distance).
It’s also the longest by any left-handed pitcher.
“It’s something I never imagined in my life that I would do,” Sánchez said via team interpreter Diego D’Aniello.
Sánchez seemed well on his way to turning in yet another scoreless outing before finally running into some trouble in the seventh. Ty France ripped a two-out double down the left-field line, then scored one batter later when Jackson Merrill singled through the left side on an 0-1 sinker.
The game came to a brief halt as the Phillies faithful acknowledged Sánchez with a raucous ovation. He ultimately had to step off the mound, at which point he finally showed some emotion when he flashed a smile toward … Merrill?
“He's nasty. All credit to him. It's insanely impressive what he just did,” Merrill said. “I told [Bryce] Harper, I said: ‘I've never felt so bad getting an RBI before.’”
The ovation carried on for upwards of a minute. Home-plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt even stepped in front of the plate just to stall and buy Sánchez a bit more time.
He deserved every second of it.
“That was awesome,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said of the ovation. “I mean, that's just who our fans are: They appreciate greatness.”
Sánchez then promptly finished off the frame to end his night with eight strikeouts over seven innings of one-run ball, lowering his season ERA to 1.46. Despite having gone more than a full month between allowing runs, that didn’t stop him from punching his own glove and letting out some frustration as he walked off the field -- all while receiving yet another ovation.
“I tend to be too tough on myself, too hard on myself,” Sánchez said. “So I think that I should be a little more flexible on that end, but that’s just me -- that's just the way I do it.”
Whatever he’s doing, it works.
"You don't get to see things like this very often," interim manager Don Mattingly said before the game. "Just historically, obviously the Phillies have never seen it this far, but even nationally in the game itself. So it's one of those things that it's not happening very often. ... I don't know if I've seen anything that's really been better than this."
During his latest gem, Sánchez leaped over legends such as Cy Young (45 innings), Zack Greinke (45 2/3) and Bob Gibson (47), among others. Only four pitchers have a longer recorded streak than Sánchez -- and two of those four played during the Dead Ball Era:
Longest single-season scoreless streaks since 1893
- Orel Hershiser: 59 IP (1988)
- Don Drysdale: 58 IP (1968)
- Walter Johnson: 55 2/3 IP (1913)
- Jack Coombs: 53 IP (1910)
- Cristopher Sánchez, 50 2/3 IP (2026)
But it was a different name that first caught Sánchez’s attention: Pedro Martinez.
When Sánchez found out that he had surpassed Martinez’s 35-inning streak from 2002, that’s when he really started to pay attention -- even if he told everyone else not to.
“Sometimes it crossed my mind during outings, but I tried to not distract myself too much about it,” Sánchez said. “I even told my family, 'Hey, let's not talk about this.' But I enjoyed it a lot. I loved every minute of it.”
They can all talk about it now.
“I’m gonna need a little time to [process] this and fully acknowledge that it happened, because as of right now, I still can't believe that it did,” Sánchez said. “I think that once the season's over and I'm home with my family, maybe that's when I’ll start thinking about what actually happened here.”
Of course, the Phillies still had a baseball game to play after Sánchez gave up that ovation-inducing game-tying single. Realmuto immediately picked up his batterymate with a go-ahead homer in the bottom half of the seventh. Kyle Schwarber then added his MLB-leading 23rd homer a few batters later.
“I was still kicking myself for calling that fastball to Merrill,” Realmuto said. “So I was happy to get in the box and be able to put a good swing on one.”
And why was he kicking himself?
“Just because he gave up a run,” Realmuto said. “I probably could have called anything else and it would’ve been a swing and miss.”
After all, that’s what the Phillies have come to expect from Sánchez. If he’s on his game, he’s hard to even get a hit against, let alone score against.
"Nothing against the streak or anything," Harper said, "but he's been doing this for so long that it feels like he's been on a streak for a couple years, you know what I'm saying?"
With the streak finally over, though, Sánchez can start on his next nearly impossible task: Catching up on all of his congratulatory messages.
“It’s a lot. A lot of messages,” he said with a smile. “I can't even use my phone right now. I have 200 messages on my texting app, 200 messages on Instagram -- every social media app. It's just a lot right now.”
AJ Cassavell contributed to this story.