Cristopher

Sánchez

Sánchez authored another masterful performance, notching his fourth double-digit strikeout effort, while limiting Toronto’s lineup to just five baserunners over seven frames. He gave up only four hits, including a fifth-inning solo shot to Ernie Clement, which was just the fourth round-tripper he’s allowed this entire season. The 29-year-old southpaw continues to bolster his NL Cy Young Award case after putting together a remarkable 50 2/3 scoreless innings streak earlier this month. He’ll face a tough challenge his next time out with a road matchup against the Brewers on Sunday.

Sánchez extended his consecutive scoreless streak to 50 2/3 innings before Jackson Merrill delivered an opposite-field base hit in the seventh, one of just four he allowed on the evening. The streak finishes as the fifth-longest in baseball since 1920, including the longest by a lefty. He fell shy of matching Orel Hershiser’s 59-IP record, but he still holds a 1.46 ERA and sits at the center of this year’s National League Cy Young race. He’ll look to continue that bid in his next outing, a road game in Toronto.

Sánchez struck out nine. Manny Machado made a bid to end the scoreless streak in the sixth, but his drive to right-center was caught at the wall by Justin Crawford. Statcast says it would have been a homer in 16 ballparks. Sánchez’s May concludes without him allowing a run in 39 innings of work. He’s potentially two starts away from challenging Orel Hershiser’s record streak of 58 scoreless innings from 1988. He’s one inning away from matching Zack Greinke’s streak of 45 2/3 scoreless innings in 2015, which is the longest since Hershiser’s. He’ll face the Padres again next week in Philadelphia.

Sánchez is on another level right now. He extended his scoreless innings streak to 37 2/3 innings after this start, which broke the Phillies’ franchise record set by Cliff Lee. This was also one of those beautiful outings where he had literally everything working. He dotted his sinker exactly where he wanted it bearing down on righties and that pitch beautifully set up both his changeup fading away and slider crashing on the back-foot of the Guardians’ right-handed batters. All in all, he forced 22 swings-and-misses, which was one off his season-high, and the vast majority came via his slider and changeup. Sadly for Sánchez, Guardians’ starter Gavin Williams matched him with eight scoreless frames, so he left this gem with a no-decision. Still, he’s firmly one of the best pitchers in the league and is scheduled to face the Padres next time out.

Sánchez was masterful on Saturday, tossing the third complete-game shutout in baseball this season. He scattered six hits and no walks, tossing an efficient 74 of 108 pitches for strikes and generating 17 whiffs to strike out a career-high 13 batters. The 29-year-old left-hander has posted a 1.82 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, and an 80/14 K/BB ratio across 64 1/3 innings. He’ll follow up the dominant start with a matchup against the Guardians in Philadelphia on Friday.

Sánchez needed 103 pitches in the outing, allowing six hits and walking none. In a weekend where neither Jesus Luzardo nor Aaron Nola could take advantage of facing the Rockies on the road, Sánchez made sure to. The 29-year-old southpaw is sporting a career-best strikeout percentage so far this season and continues to be worth every penny of the big extension he signed before Opening Day. He visits the Pirates next.

Sánchez had been more good than great since striking out 10 against the Rangers on Opening Day, so it was nice to see him dominate tonight. Coming into the game, the league was hitting .287 against him with a 45 percent hard-hit rate against him, compared to .226 with a 40 percent hard-hit rate last year. Tonight, with his velocity up about 1.5 mph from his season average, the A’s were 3-for-27 against him.

It was his longest outing of the year, but he left in line for a loss as the Phillies were stymied by Logan Webb. The Giants hit back-to-back doubles lead off the game and both runners scored, but after that Sánchez locked in and handled the Giants three times through the order. Sánchez allowed 10 hard-hit balls and generated just nine whiffs, but found enough of the zone to finish with a 32 percent CSW rate. He’s likely to match up with the Athletics in his next start.

It’ll be made up as a split doubleheader on Thursday instead. Wednesday’s original starters — Logan Webb and Cristopher Sánchez — will take the ball at some point during the day-night twin bill at Citizens Bank Park.

Nothing underneath the hood here was concerning for Sánchez, but the Cubs pounced all over his sinker, missing it just once in 15 swings and notching seven hard-hit balls against it. He allowed long, loud homers to Michael Busch and Ian Happ. The Phillies got him off the hook for the loss against Chicago’s bullpen late in the game, but not an ideal outing for fantasy purposes. He’ll look to rebound next week against the Giants.