The Philadelphia Phillies began a key series against the New York Mets on Monday night with Cristopher Sánchez on the mound. Sánchez, who has been the team’s ace in Zack Wheeler’s absence, started strong by holding the Mets hitless through three innings while his teammates built a 3-0 lead.
However, the game took a turn in the fourth inning when Sánchez caught his cleat on the Citi Field mound as he was about to deliver a pitch. This led to a balk that moved Pete Alonso to second base. On subsequent pitches, Mark Vientos doubled and several Mets reached base, resulting in the Phillies losing their early advantage. In total, Sánchez gave up six runs (five earned) over 5 1/3 innings and allowed eight hits, tying his season high for a single game.
“Early on, I thought he was really good,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Until he got his cleat stuck.”
Sánchez acknowledged that the incident affected him mentally rather than physically. “I think it threw me off my rhythm a little bit,” Sánchez said.
Thomson added: “It was really strange… From that point on, he was behind in the count. He had to get [his pitches] in the middle of the plate. I’m not sure if that affected him or not, but it kind of looked like it did.”
Sánchez also noted problems with his changeup during this outing. The pitch had previously induced one of baseball’s highest whiff rates at 45.1%, but only generated three swings and misses against New York—his second fewest this season.
“For the whole season, this was my worst outing when it comes to the changeup,” Sánchez said. “We could all see that.”
The Phillies’ offense stalled after Harrison Bader’s leadoff single in the fourth inning; no further hits were recorded by Philadelphia for the rest of the game. Relief pitchers Jordan Romano and Joe Ross also struggled, allowing four and three runs respectively.
This loss marked just the sixth time in franchise history that Philadelphia surrendered 13 or more unanswered runs after leading by at least three runs earlier in a game.
“It’s a good team over there,” first baseman Bryce Harper said regarding their opponents after being involved in an error during a rundown play that contributed to New York taking control of the game. “… Obviously, tonight didn’t go the way we wanted to. It kind of got away from us in the fifth, sixth inning.”
Despite dropping nine out of their last ten games at Citi Field—including postseason contests—the Phillies maintain a six-game division lead with six more matchups remaining against New York within their next sixteen games.
“We got another one tomorrow,” Thomson stated postgame. “Just got to strap it on. Have to turn the page on this one. This was not what we were looking for, coming in here. So we got to turn the page and get out there tomorrow.”
