J.T. Realmuto’s go-ahead homer saves a strong Cristopher Sánchez outing in Phillies’ win vs. Mariners

When manager Rob Thomson walked to the mound to pull Cristopher Sánchez with one out in the seventh inning, fans began to stand and cheer. The starter handed Thomson the baseball, headed toward the dugout, and tipped his cap. One man in the Hall of Fame Club yelled, “We love you.”

The response felt like more than an appreciation of what Sánchez had done in the Phillies’ 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night. It also seemed to be a reflection of the circumstances.

Thomson has praised Sánchez’s maturity and growth over the past few years, but it will now be put to the test. The Phillies still don’t know whether Zack Wheeler will rejoin the team this year, after undergoing a procedure to remove a blood clot around his upper right arm.

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Aaron Nola looked shaky in his first start off the injured list on Sunday. Top pitching prospect Andrew Painter isn’t waiting in the wings. With Wheeler out for the foreseeable future, Sánchez becomes the Phillies’ ace. And on Tuesday night, he pitched like one.

Facing a Mariners lineup that ranks third in baseball in home runs, Sánchez struck out 12 to tie a career-high. He allowed only two earned runs on six hits with two walks, finishing his night with 96 pitches (63 strikes). He threw 26 of 27 first-pitch strikes.

When he did allow traffic on the bases, he was able to get himself out of it. In the third inning, Sánchez yielded a leadoff double to JP Crawford, and a one-out RBI double to Randy Arozarena.

He allowed a walk to Cal Raleigh to put runners on first and second, but retired his next two batters, Julio Rodríguez and Eugenio Suárez, on a strikeout and a force out.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” J.T. Realmuto said of Sánchez. “He got ahead of guys all night long, threw strike one, mixed really well early in the count.

“They’ve got a really good lineup over there with a lot of guys that have good approaches. So, he kind of went off script a little bit tonight, which was good. And kept them off balance.”

It was a continuation of what has been Sánchez’s strongest season to date, one that has put him back in the Cy Young Award conversation. According to Phillies PR, the left-handed pitcher entered Tuesday’s game ranked third in ERA (2.45) and FIP (2.73) and fourth in innings pitched (150⅔) among National League starters.

Now, with Wheeler out, it is even more important that Sánchez continue pitching the way he has. The left-handed starter emphasized that there is no replacing Wheeler, and that he has learned how to deal with the pressures that come with the game.

Like his teammates, he was more concerned with Wheeler’s well-being than anything else.

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“I’ve always said he’s one of my favorite pitchers,” Sánchez said of Wheeler. “I felt very bad [when I heard the news]. We talked [recently]. Hopefully everything goes well.”

For as loud as the crowd reception was for Sánchez, the boos (and sarcastic cheers) were just as raucous for Orion Kerkering. The reliever, who replaced Sánchez in the seventh, immediately allowed two walks to load the bases.

Kerkering induced an RBI groundout, then allowed a two RBI double to tie the game, 4-4. Matt Strahm entered in relief of Kerkering to retire Josh Naylor on a flyout to end the inning.

The Phillies’ lineup made it a moot issue. Kyle Schwarber put them on the board with a solo home run — his 44th — in the first inning and Bryce Harper drove in Bryson Stott with a sacrifice fly in the third.

J.T. Realmuto followed that with an RBI single in the third, and Bryson Stott added a solo home run in the fourth. Realmuto hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to give the Phillies a 6-4 lead.

Both Realmuto and Stott have put in work over the past few weeks that has led to meaningful gains. In July, hitting coach Kevin Long and assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña recommended to Stott that he lower his hands closer to his chest, as opposed to his shoulders.

They also had him quiet his hand movements. Those changes have helped him time his swing to high-velocity offerings, and the numbers back it up: Stott is hitting .317/.391/.537 over his last 15 games.

Realmuto said after Tuesday’s game that he couldn’t point to anything specific that has helped him hit better recently. But he did say he has found a good routine with his coaches. He has also been more consistent with his leg kick and his timing.

It has helped with the quality of his at-bats. Realmuto is hitting .342/.374/.521 over his last 30 games.

“They’ve been working on it,” Thomson said of Realmuto. “He’s using the field, he’s pulling the ball in the air, he’s really having good at-bats.”

Reliever David Robertson retired the Mariners in order in the eighth with two strikeouts, and closer Jhoan Duran closed the door in the ninth, inducing two groundouts and a strikeout to end the game.

But the story of the night was Sánchez, who showed, once again, why his team can turn to him in a time of need.

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Realmuto wasn’t surprised.

“In my opinion, he’s been that guy for a couple of years now,” the catcher said. “Obviously we have Zack as well at the top, but there’s a lot of teams Sánchez would be the ace on.

“So, he’s had that type of stuff for us. He’s been doing it for years now. So, there’s no reason why he won’t continue that.”