Cristopher Sánchez saw his historic scoreless streak end at 50 ⅔ innings Wednesday night when Jackson Merrill poked a two-out RBI single to left field in the seventh inning, driving in Ty France who had doubled down the left field line. The run was the first Sánchez had allowed since the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on April 30.
"My vocabulary is probably not good enough for him, but he's just been amazing to watch," Phillies manager Don Mattingly said after the 3-2 win.
Sánchez held the Padres to four hits and one walk in seven innings, striking out eight. He has now thrown at least seven innings in an MLB-leading six starts this season. The right-hander gave up just one run in his 50 ⅔-inning run, an unusually clean exit for a streak that long.
Including the Dead Ball Era (prior to 1920), Sánchez's streak ranks fifth all-time. Walter Johnson went 55 ⅔ innings without allowing a run for the Washington Senators in 1913, Jack Coombs had 53 scoreless innings with the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics, and only Orel Hershiser and Dodgers Don Drysdale remain ahead of him in MLB history.
In May, Sánchez became only the non-opener in baseball history to start five games in a calendar month without allowing a run. He threw at least seven innings in each of those five starts and was named the NL's Pitcher of the Month.
Sánchez, 29, was the NL 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. Through 13 starts this season, he carries a 1.46 ERA and an MLB-leading 86 ⅓ innings pitched.
The Phillies acquired Sánchez as a minor leaguer in a 1-for-1 trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on Nov. 20, 2019, sending infielder Curtis Mead the other way. He made his MLB debut in June 2021 and Philadelphia signed him to a six-year, $107 million extension in March—a deal that already looks like one of baseball's better bargains.
What the streak means
Five months into a contract year, Sánchez has been the best pitcher on the planet for almost two months straight. That is the kind of performance that turns a reasonable extension into an outright theft. The Phillies acquired him for a utility infielder in 2019 and now have a frontline starter locked in through the decade at below-market value.
The Pressure Left Behind
The box score gives the clean version, but baseball rarely gets there cleanly. The useful detail is the route the play took before it became a line in the game log.