Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez aims to start putting up more zeros on the scoreboard when he opposes the host Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night.
Sanchez (7-2, 1.46 ERA) had his club-record streak of 50 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings snapped with two outs in the seventh last Wednesday in a 3-2 home win over the San Diego Padres.
It was the only run he allowed in his seven innings.
The streak is the fifth-longest scoreless stretch in major league history and the longest by a left-hander.
He said that the tried not to let the pursuit of records become a distraction,
“I’m not going to say that it didn’t come through my mind,” Sanchez said. “At some points it did. You know, I thought about it. And sometimes it crossed my mind during the outings. But I tried to not distract myself too much about it.”
Sanchez is 3-0 with a 2.00 ERA in four career starts against Toronto.
The Blue Jays are scheduled to start Patrick Corbin (2-2, 3.98). The left-hander is 6-11 with a 4.83 ER in 23 starts against the Phillies.
Both clubs are coming off victories in the rubber matches of three-game home series on Sunday.
The Phillies defeated the Chicago White Sox 9-5 with Brandon Marsh hitting a homer in his third straight game.
The Blue Jays overcame a 4-0 deficit with a five-run sixth inning to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 6-4.
Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly will make his return to Toronto after serving as a Blue Jays bench coach from 2023-25.
The Phillies are 27-12 since they ended a 10-game losing streak on April 25.
“We’ve just got to keep this train going,” Marsh said. “It’s been driven by our pitchers. They’ve set the tone for us. And as hitters, we’ve picked it up as well. We’re just trying to give those guys a couple of runs because that’s pretty much all they need. Just trying to do our part so they can do theirs.”
Mattingly said: “It seems like now we’re starting to talk about (Marsh) every day, like we talk about (Sanchez), you know? Every day he’s just swinging the bat, he continues to swing it — and not only for average, but power.”
Marsh is batting .338 with eight homers and 30 RBIs after going 2-for-4 on Sunday.
The Blue Jays are also feeling optimistic, again, after winning three of their past four to creep within two games of .500.
In their five-run sixth on Sunday, four of the runs were unearned because of an error by Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson. The Orioles also felt that Toronto’s Ernie Clement strayed too far off the basepath between first and second on a groundout to avoid Henderson, who had the ball. They protested that Clement should have been called out to complete an inning-ending double play. Instead, Clement reached second base safely and the rally continued.
“I haven’t looked at it yet. Maybe fortunate there,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.
The Blue Jays are still trying to gain traction, although they are in the mix for a wild-card spot.
“We’re a really good team,” Clement said. “We have a chance to be a great team. It’s about nailing things down, and once we firmly figure out our team identity, I think this team has a chance to be better than last year.”
Last year, the Blue Jays lost Game 7 of the World Series in extra innings to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
–Field Level Media
