Cristopher Sánchez escapes a pair of jams as Phillies blank Orioles to snap four-game skid
Bryan De La Cruz, Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and Justin Crawford notched RBI singles as Cristopher Sánchez grinded through an uncharacteristically erratic start as the trade deadline looms closer.
BALTIMORE — A few minutes after it ended — the game, and the Phillies’ losing skid — Dave Dombrowski poked his head into Don Mattingly’s office.
“I was just telling him,” Dombrowski said, straight-faced, “about the four trades we made.”
Winning, it seems, brings out the comedian in everyone.
But the Phillies earned a few moments of levity here Saturday night, near the end of a tension-filled week — less than 48 hours before the trade deadline — with a 5-0 blanking of the Orioles to halt a four-game losing streak.
» READ MORE: Phillies continue to seek help for ‘man down’ bullpen before Monday’s trade deadline
The record will reflect that they did it with six scoreless innings from Cristopher Sánchez and timely hitting from Alec Bohm, Brandon Marsh, and, with two outs, Justin Crawford in a four-run eighth inning.
A closer inspection reveals the Phillies won by doing the little things. To wit:
J.T. Realmuto blocked a sinker in the dirt from atypically erratic Sánchez with the bases loaded in the sixth inning before Trea Turner fielded Leody Taveras’ high chopper to extinguish the threat.
Bryson Stott capped a 15-pitch duel — the longest at-bat in the majors this season — with a one-out single in the seventh inning to knock tough Orioles starter Shane Baz from the game.
Crawford ran down a ball in right-center field when the game was scoreless in the fourth inning.
“It was kind of a complete game for us,” Mattingly said. “We caught the ball. Sánchy was good, got out of jams, which is not ever going to be easy for you. Just kind of the whole game today felt like a clean game.”
Indeed, little things go a long way.
That’s always true, of course, but especially with the trade deadline bearing down at 6 p.m. Monday. It’s down to the wire for teams on the buy-sell fence. Some clubs, such as the Orioles, may not choose a lane until Monday morning, if at all.
The Phillies, who hold the final wild card in the National League, firmly are in the buyers’ club. But they need a late-inning reliever, a right-handed bat, and probably a starting pitcher to hold off a charge from the Padres and Marlins — and maybe the Pirates and Nationals, too.
Mostly, though, they need to get back to winning.
» READ MORE: The Orioles’ Taylor Ward fits the Phillies’ needs. But will he be on the market at the MLB trade deadline?
It was no wonder, then, that Sánchez shrugged off the notion that a start in which he equaled his career-high with five walks was uncharacteristic for him.
“Not weird, not rare,” he said with a smile through the team interpreter. “Just an excellent outing. We won.”
Or that Crawford gave a different answer altogether upon being asked which was more satisfying: his catch to rob extra bases from Taylor Ward early in the game or his two-run single late?
“I think just coming out with a win, honestly,” the rookie center fielder said. “Being able to get that win right there was huge for us. And hopefully we could keep the momentum going and get another one [Sunday].”
It surely will help to have Zack Wheeler on the mound.
The Phillies look like a World Series contender whenever their top three starters — Sánchez, Wheeler, and Jesús Luzardo — are on the mound. Even when they don’t have their sharpest stuff.
Sánchez overcame spells of poor control, twice escaping bases-loaded jams. In the fourth inning, he struck out Taveras on a sinker that clipped the inside corner. In the sixth, with the Phillies clutching a 1-0 lead, Realmuto knocked down a first-pitch sinker in the dirt before Sánchez got the chopper to Turner.
“Oh, it was big,” Sánchez said of sidestepping the sixth-inning jam. “After the inning ended, I just took a deep breath and said, ‘Thank God.’ Too many walks today, and we know that not the type of pitcher that I am or want to be.”
Sánchez also had a few words for the Orioles’ dugout.
“They were yelling some stuff, some things,” he said. “I saw one of their coaches talking a little. But what they don’t know is that those type of things, that motivates me. I take as fuel. That fuels me. I just get motivated by that.”
» READ MORE: The Phillies do ‘need some help’ by trades. But they also need some from Bryce Harper and his teammates.
Given the bullpen’s recent problems, Mattingly surely exhaled after the five-run eighth inning. Rather than a cuticle-chomping finish, lefty José Alvarado was able to work with a big lead before turning it over to Jhoan Duran, pitching for the first time since his blown save five nights earlier in Miami.
“We got a little breathing room there,” Mattingly said.
Dombrowski continues to pursue help for the bullpen, a starting pitcher, and a right-handed bat. The rival Braves landed righty-hitting outfielder Lane Thomas from the Royals late Saturday night. Thomas was a Phillies target, too.
Righty-hitting outfielder Bryan De La Cruz has filled in well. He’s 8-for-18 since getting called up from triple A, including an RBI single to break a scoreless stalemate in the fifth inning.
“De La’s always kind of like day in, day out, you know?” Mattingly said. “He plays solid defense, doesn’t really make mistakes. The at-bats are good.”
It’s something to think about.
Meanwhile, a victory put everyone in a good mood — at least for a night.
No matter what moves the Phillies make before the trade deadline Monday, they will have to fix some of their issues internally. Chief among them: Trea Turner's defense at shortstop. And that's where infield coach Bobby Dickerson comes in. Dickerson sat down with "Phillies Extra," The Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss Turner's struggles, the problems with analytics in measuring defense, his unique coaching style, and more. Watch here.
You can also subscribe to the podcast version of Phillies Extra on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
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