A pitcher's duel with a wild finish. Phillies beat the Rays, 2-1.
Cristopher Sanchez entered Monday night's game with a National League-best 2.24 Home ERA. That figure dropped to 2.11 after he delivered six scoreless innings at Citizens Bank Park.
Cristopher Sánchez, Wicked 87mph Changeup. 👌 pic.twitter.com/Em98u4PeQk
Just a friendly reminder that the Phillies have Cristopher Sanchez locked up for 4 more years at 5.5 mil/year. If anything makes me feel better about the Taijuan Walker disaster contract signing, it’s Sanchez.
— Phillies Baseball Talk (@FightinsTalk) September 10, 2024
Also thank you to the Rays for giving us Cristopher Sanchez.
According to @Fangraphs, Cristopher Sánchez now has the fourth-highest WAR among qualified starting pitchers at 4.6.
The only pitchers higher than him are Chris Sale (6.2), Tarik Skubal (5.3) and Zack Wheeler (4.7.).
Sanchez's dominant performance was almost all for naught, as the Phillies were held hitless through 5.1 innings. Luckily, Kyle Schwarber ended the drought in a big way:
Kyle Schwarber MAMMOTH home run pic.twitter.com/aGEE0QSmFT
That was Kyle Schwarber’s 127th HR with the Phillies, T-7th in MLB history, with HOF Jimmie Foxx, for most homers through the first three seasons with any club.
STL’s Mark McGwire, 159 HR
NYY’s Alex Rodriguez, 156 HR
NYY’s Babe Ruth, 148 HR
NYY’s Roger Maris, 133 HR
OAK’s Khris…
Kyle Schwarber’s foul ball landed in this guy’s lap, smashing and bending his phone, then the next pitch he hit a monster homer @ah_pod pic.twitter.com/gipCV9PeA2
CONGRATULATIONS to Kyle Schwarber, the new #iubase Home Run King in MLB.
Tonight's Home Run was @kschwarb12's 2️⃣8️⃣0️⃣th of his MLB career, putting him on top of the list, and passing Ted Kluszewski. pic.twitter.com/ksKKqq8aSb
Schwarber was named the NL Player of the Week earlier in the day.
Gunnar Henderson: .417 AVG, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1.298 OPS
Kyle Schwarber: .462 AVG, 5 HR, 11 RBI, 1.654 OPS
Your AL and NL Players of the Week, presented by @Chevrolet! pic.twitter.com/U11jkTnEdX
After Orion Kerkering and Jeff Hoffman preserved the Phillies' shutout into the ninth, things got weird. The Rays tied the game on a home run ball that Johan Rojas almost robbed.
Here’s the Johan Rojas play pic.twitter.com/IAFpdacssW
Not to worry. The Phillies came through in the bottom of the ninth. Bryce Harper led off the inning with a single (that probably should have been a double).
Topper looks disappointed at Bryce Harper for not running this hit into a double
pic.twitter.com/GAo3xxzCN9
Bryson Stott singled and Buddy Kennedy walked to load the bases. With two outs, Kody Clemens came up clutch:
KODY "ROADS" CLEMENS BAH GAWD FINISHES HIS STORY
SCOTT FRANZKE ON THE CALL pic.twitter.com/hd2nOtE2it
