Phillies end long road trip on negative note with worst outing of Sanchez’s career originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
PHOENIX – Cristopher Sanchez has been a reliable piece of the Phillies’ puzzle all season and they enjoyed Sunday’s matchup, with their lefty facing a Diamondbacks lineup without Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll and Joc Pederson, but Sanchez was just as hittable as it always was in a 12-5 loss.
With a two-run lead in the first inning, Sanchez allowed one in the first, four in the third and two in the fifth, encountering trouble and traffic every step of the way. He often missed the base with his sinker and changeup and gave up 12 hits — four more than his previous career high.
Sanchez stranded two runners with no one out in the second inning, punching out Jake McCarthy on a changeup to end the threat, but the bottom of the third was his undoing. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. started the rally by hitting an 0-2 pitch on the ankles. Josh Bell hit a single up the middle, Eugenio Suarez hit an equally-powerful RBI double, and the biggest play of the inning was a multi-hop ground ball from rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo that went past Bryce Harper’s diving glove for more two races.
The Phillies lost the four-game series and the seven-game season series to the Diamondbacks. They went 4-6 on their longest road trip of the year, which coach Rob Thomson said was even longer than London-Boston-Baltimore in mid-June. They return home with a 69-49 record.
There’s a good chance the Phillies will see the Diamondbacks again in October after losing to them in the 2023 NLCS. Arizona ranks 5th in the National League, and since the playoffs are not reseeded, the team with the best record is committed to facing the winner of the 4 vs. 5 matchup in the NLDS.
“They’re pretty evenly matched,” Thomson said. “They have strength, speed. They can do a lot of things, create a lot of runs.”
The D-backs are the hottest team in baseball, having won 15 of 18 while averaging 7.2 runs per game.
The afternoon started well for the Phillies, with Trea Turner and Harper reaching base in the first, ahead of Alec Bohm’s two-run double, his 43rd. Bohm is on pace for 59 doubles. No player since 1936 has reached the age of 60.
It looked like they had another run when Harper hit a Merrill Kelly pitch deep into the opposite field in the top of the third. It was to a similar spot where Harper hit the target earlier in the series, but it drifted toward the deepest part of an angled left field wall and Gurriel leaped like Spider-Man to steal it. It would have been a home run in 20 of 30 ballparks.
The Phils left a lot of meat on the bone against Kelly, who was making his first start since April 15 because of a shoulder injury. Kelly faced 20 batters and started seven of them with 2-0 counts, but only one resulted in a hit.
The D-backs’ lead had grown to seven when the Phils made the game with three runs on four straight hits in the top of the seventh and responded immediately with three more runs off Jose Alvarado in the bottom half.
The Phillies played well in the middle of their 10-game road trip, but they started and finished poorly. They were eliminated and then lost a lead in a loss the first two nights in Seattle. They rallied to win four of five over the Mariners, Dodgers and Diamondbacks and finished with three straight losses.
It’s not any player’s fault. The Phillies’ lineup, starting pitching and bullpen work haven’t been as consistent since the All-Star break. They are looking for answers right now and made a lineup change on Sunday, taking out Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh. Both lefties have been mired in slumps, with Stott going 3-for-31 in August and Marsh going 0-for-20 in the seventh inning on Sunday.
The advancements of all three of Bohm, Stott and Marsh last season helped the Phillies level up as a team, but in 2024 only Bohm has continued to ascend.
A portion of the fan base won’t want to hear this, but Sunday briefly ended a difficult part of the schedule, perhaps the most challenging of the year for the Phillies. From July 22 to August 11, the Phillies had a 6-12 record facing the Twins, Guardians, Yankees, Mariners, Dodgers and D-backs – six teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today.
The following week at home is much lighter with two meetings with the Marlins and four with the Nationals, but it toughens up again from then on with the next 13 games against the Braves, Royals and Astros. No matter the opponent, the Phillies need to tighten up in every phase.
