Phillies waste a strong outing from Cristopher Sánchez in 1-0 loss to the Guardians
Kyle Manzardo homered in the ninth against Phillies closer Jhoan Duran to break 0-0 stalemate. Sánchez's eight innings vs. Cleveland extended his scoreless streak to 37⅔ innings.
As rain poured at Citizens Bank Park for most of the evening, the starting pitchers put on a show.
Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez dueled the Guardians’ Gavin Williams on Friday, and for eight innings, neither wavered.
With the game deadlocked in a scoreless tie in the ninth, the Phillies brought in closer Jhoan Duran. But Kyle Manzardo, pinch-hitting for Rhys Hoskins, jumped on a first-pitch splitter and homered to the opposite field to finally break the stalemate.
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The Phillies offense then couldn’t come through against Guardians closer Cade Smith, with Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, and Bryce Harper going down in order to seal the 1-0 loss. The Phillies dropped their third game in a row.
“I feel really bad right now,” Duran said. “Because I want to do the best I can for [Sánchez] to win after a game like that, and I did not do it. Right now, today is today. Tomorrow will be tomorrow. I know he can throw again like that, and I’d be the guy throwing the ninth and [get] the outs.”
It wasted a spectacular outing from Sánchez, who followed his complete-game shutout last week in Pittsburgh with eight scoreless innings. He extended his scoreless streak to 37⅔ innings, which ranks second in franchise history behind Grover Alexander’s streak of 41 in 1911.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen anything quite like it,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “Pretty amazing every time out. Seemingly makes it look easy.”
Sánchez struck out six. He generated 22 swings-and-misses, 11 of which came on his changeup.
Nine swings-and-misses came on his slider, which he turned to more often than normal, throwing it 32% of the time. The pitch typically is a tertiary option for Sánchez behind his sinker and changeup.
“I feel really good about it,” Sánchez said of his slider, through team interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “I’m feeling proud of myself because of the work that we put in during the offseason on this pitch, specifically, and all the work that we did with my team. The results are showing now, so it’s something to feel really good about.”
But Williams matched him. The Guardians right-hander got ahead in the count often and threw first-pitch strikes 67% of the time. His breaking balls were especially effective, with seven of his 11 strikeouts coming on his sweeper.
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“Lot of strikes. I felt like he attacked us,” Mattingly said. “He forced us to swing. Stuff’s good. Breaking ball was good tonight, a lot of breaking balls. But I think getting ahead in the count and just attacking, just kept us right there all night.”
Harper doubled down the first-base line in the first inning, but Alec Bohm struck out to strand him there. That was one of only four hits the Phillies mustered in the game.
Schwarber, who returned to the lineup after missing three straight games with a stomach issue, struck out looking three times against Williams and swinging once against Smith.
Turner also went 0-for-4. He led off the ninth against Smith and popped out on the first pitch.
“This guy’s a really good hitter,” Mattingly said of Turner. “He’s been a good hitter for a long time, and you don’t really question him swinging first pitch. He hits a first pitch homer, nobody says anything about it.”
Sánchez walked two batters and scattered four singles. But thanks to several force outs at second base, a double play in the fourth, and J.T Realmuto catching a runner stealing in the fifth, the Guardians didn’t advance a runner into scoring position against him.
“Confidence is pretty big right now on the things that we’re doing,” Sánchez said. “But try to keep my feet on the ground and remembering every day that we’re facing a lot of great hitters, a lot of top players.”
With Sánchez’s pitch count up to 96 — and with the Phillies cautious not to push him too far after he threw 108 pitches in his previous start — Duran relieved him for the ninth. He gave up a leadoff single to José Ramírez, but Adolis García tracked the ball down in right field and threw a laser to second to throw Ramírez out. When Manzardo homered on the next pitch, García’s play became even more crucial for keeping the game close.
But Smith only needed eight pitches to retire the side in the bottom of the ninth. He earned his MLB-leading 17th save and pushed the Phillies back below the .500 mark.
“This is a long season, with highs and lows,” Sánchez said. “And you just got to play through it, and I think that we’re going to get out of this. It’s just a couple bad days that we’ve had, but we’re going to go ahead, and we’re going to get through this.”
Ricky Bottalico spouts opinions each day on sports-talk radio and the Phillies' television pre- and postgame show. But before all that, he had a solid career as a relief pitcher, even representing the Phillies in the 1996 All-Star Game at Veterans Stadium. With the baseball world set to descend on Philly again in a few weeks, Ricky Bo joined "Phillies Extra" to re-live his All-Star experience. Watch here.
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