Cristopher Sánchez pitched a complete game for the second time this season, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 5-1 victory over the Washington Nationals on Saturday night.
Sánchez faced only two more batters than the minimum, allowing just two hits. The only run he gave up was a solo homer by Alex Call in the fourth inning.
He recorded 15 ground ball outs, tying the record for the most by a Phillies pitcher in a single game since Statcast started tracking data in 2008.
Sánchez (9-8) struck out four batters and did not issue a walk, earning his ninth win of the season after struggling in four of his last five games.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson mentioned that the team’s pitching coaches noticed Sánchez had been throwing from a lower arm slot since the All-Star break. They made an adjustment during his bullpen session this week, which improved his performance.
Sánchez said, “I’m going to say that was 95% (of it) but it wasn’t only because of that. (But) thank you to the pitching coaches who saw that and told me you are lowering your arm a little bit. Let’s work on getting it back where it needs to be.
Thanks to that we had the results that we did today.”
He was very efficient, throwing just 99 pitches to finish the game. His last complete game was a shutout against Miami on June 28.
Sánchez is now one of the only pitchers in the majors this season to have thrown two complete games, along with Atlanta’s Max Fried and Toronto’s Kevin Gausman.
The game lasted just two hours and six minutes, making it the quickest game of the season at Citizens Bank Park. Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto sensed early on that it could be a swift and successful game given Sánchez’s pitching.
Realmuto said, “We got through three innings, and I felt like we were out there for five minutes on defense. It definitely happened quickly. He just continued to pound the strike zone.”
He made them hit the ball early — and that’s a lineup that’s hard to get through. For him to pitch so deep into the game with such a low pitch count is impressive.”
The Phillies won their fourth straight game and took back the top spot in the majors with the best record in baseball (73-50). They will try for a four-game sweep of the Nationals on Sunday.
Every player in Philadelphia’s lineup got at least one hit except for Bryce Harper. Weston Wilson had two hits and a run scored, and Nick Castellanos had two hits and an RBI.
After struggling against Washington starter Mackenzie Gore (7-11) in the first five innings, the Phillies finally got to him in the sixth, scoring four runs on five hits.
Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Edmundo Sosa, and Johan Rojas all had RBI singles in the sixth for Philadelphia.
Bohm extended his on-base streak to 34 games when he walked in the fourth inning. He later scored on a double by Castellanos.
Washington has lost four straight games and seven of their last ten.
“Our offense didn’t show up today and we couldn’t get anything going,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said.
The game started 30 minutes later than planned because the Phillies honored their late owner, president, and CEO David Montgomery by placing him on their Wall of Fame.
As part of the ceremony, they renamed a section of the center field wall after him, calling it “Monty’s Angle” because of how it sticks out into the field. This was Montgomery’s idea to pay tribute to Connie Mack Stadium, the Phillies’ former home until 1971. A permanent logo was placed on the wall to mark the name.
