PHILADELPHIA -- The crowd at Citizens Bank Park rose as one to salute Cristopher Sánchez with a raucous standing ovation.
He responded by waving to the fans along the first-base line, then turned to do the same to those in right field and, lastly, left field.
But this wasn't as Sánchez walked off the field after throwing 5 2/3 solid innings against the Dodgers in the Phillies' 5-3 loss in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night. Instead, that was the scene as Sánchez emerged from the first-base dugout to make the long walk out to the bullpen in center field to begin his warmups -- a full 39 minutes before first pitch.
“What’s really cool is when I sit here [in my office] and watch the overhead [camera] prior to the game,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We have all the doors open, and when the starting pitcher walks out, you can hear the crowd. You don’t get it during the regular season. I’m usually sitting here when he goes out, and you can hear the crowd starting to go.”
As loud as that ovation was, it was nothing compared to the one Sánchez received 40 minutes later when he struck out three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani on three pitches to start the game. Or the one after he struck out Ohtani for a second time in the third inning ... or after he struck out Ohtani for a third time in the fifth.
Sánchez got Ohtani to chase a low-and-inside changeup for strike three in the first inning. He then froze the Dodgers slugger with a 3-2 sinker at the bottom of the zone in the third, and again caught him looking with a 97.1 mph sinker in the fifth. That was Sánchez's fastest pitch of the night.
Though Ohtani is unquestionably one of the best hitters on the planet, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Sánchez was once again up for the challenge.
After all, Sánchez also struck out Ohtani three times when the clubs met on April 6. Ohtani has had only four games this year (including the postseason) in which the same pitcher struck him out three times -- and Sánchez has accounted for half of those.
Oh, and Sánchez also struck him out twice in their Sept. 16 meeting at Dodger Stadium. Overall, Ohtani is just 1-for-9 (.111) with eight K's against Sánchez this season.
“To me, it's just a regular matchup,” Sánchez said via a team interpreter. “I try to go out there and attack early on, and execute my plan. As I would do with every other hitter, I just want to follow my plan and get results.”
What seemed destined to be a truly special night for Sánchez hit a snag in the sixth. Staked to an early 3-0 lead when the Phils tagged Ohtani for three runs in the second, Sánchez cruised his way through five scoreless innings.
After getting two quick outs to start the sixth, however, Sánchez walked Freddie Freeman and gave up a single to Tommy Edman -- just the Dodgers’ third hit of the night and only the second to leave the infield.
Kiké Hernández followed with a two-run double into the left-field corner that cut the Phillies' lead to one, and ended Sánchez’s night. The left-hander walked off the mound to one last ovation from the home crowd.
“He looked good. He looked great,” Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “... Other than that inning, he looked like his old self, he was great.”
Unfortunately for Sánchez, he was forced to settle for a no-decision after Teoscar Hernández hit a go-ahead three-run homer off Matt Strahm in the top of the seventh inning. That came two batters after Strahm had also struck out Ohtani, marking just the seventh time in Ohtani’s career that he struck out four times in a game.
Of course, Ohtani also settled in after his rocky second inning on the mound to rack up nine strikeouts over six innings en route to earning the win.
“He's not always going to be perfect,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Ohtani’s offensive struggles. “But I do feel that him giving up the three [runs] and to still go out there and give us six innings -- so, five innings tonight he threw shutout baseball -- was huge. So it's a quality start for him. He gets the win.”
In the end, that’s all that mattered to Sánchez.
“I mean, we lost tonight, so personally, I don't care about how I do individually,” Sánchez said. “If we lose the game, then I don't feel good.”