The Result Has A Second Meaning
PHIL 3, SD 2. That is how it ended: a one-run game, a scoreless streak that had grown into something historic, finally crossed off in the seventh inning when Jackson Merrill poked an RBI single to left field, driving in Ty France, who had doubled down the line as the previous batter.
"My vocabulary is probably not good enough for him, but he's just been amazing to watch," Phillies manager Don Mattingly said after Wednesday's win. The streak stopped at 50⅔ innings—the first run Sánchez had allowed since the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on April 30. That alone places him fifth all-time in Major League Baseball history, including the Dead Ball Era.
Sánchez held the Padres to four hits and one walk in seven innings Wednesday night. He struck out eight. That gives him six starts of at least seven innings this season—an MLB-leading figure that tells you something about the rhythm he has built into the Phillies' rotation. He has thrown at least seven innings in each of his five May starts, a feat that matched Orel Hershiser as the only non-openers in baseball history to do that in a calendar month without allowing a run.
The Part Worth Keeping
The numbers behind the streak carry weight: Walter Johnson (55⅔ innings, 1913), Jack Coombs (53, 1910), Orel Hershiser and Don Drysdale. Those are the only four names ahead of Sánchez in MLB history. The record did not need much decoration; it already did the talking.
Sánchez, 29, was the National League Cy Young runner-up behind Paul Skenes last season, when he threw 202 innings with a 2.50 ERA and led all pitchers with 8.0 WAR per Baseball Reference. Through 13 starts this season, his ERA sits at 1.46 with an MLB-leading 86⅓ innings pitched.
The Phillies acquired Sánchez as a minor leaguer in a 1-for-1 trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on November 20, 2019, sending Infielder Curtis Mead the other way. He made his MLB debut in June 2021. Philadelphia signed him to a six-year, $107 million extension in March—now one of the bigger bargains in baseball, even after Wednesday. The streak is over. The contract is not.