Cristopher Sanchez strikes out 12 to lead Phillies to 6-4 win over Giants

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Apr 17, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — Cristopher Sánchez’s change-up is his most effective pitch.

He turns to it 34.8% of the time in a typical outing, and uses it to put away batters 19.4% of the time. In Thursday’s 6-4 win over the San Francisco Giants, his signature offering was lethal.

Aided in part by the late afternoon shadows stretching across the infield, Sánchez used his change-up more than half the time to mow down Giants hitters, who whiffed 22 times on 29 swings.

The lefty set a career high with 12 strikeouts over seven innings to help propel the Phillies to a series split. All but one of those came via his change-up.

Sánchez allowed two earned runs. The Giants plated one in the first on a Heliot Ramos double and a Matt Chapman single, but Sánchez’s offense picked him up with a five-hit, five-run rally in the bottom of the frame.

Alec Bohm, overdue for some good fortune, capped the outburst with an RBI triple. He launched a fly ball that Giants center fielder Luis Matos nearly corralled on the warning track. But the well-hit ball, which clocked a 104.9-mph exit velocity, popped out of Matos’ glove, allowing Nick Castellanos to score from second and Bohm to sail into third.

Bohm at one point went 0 for 19 during his early-season skid, but has now hit safely in four consecutive games.

Trea Turner had a shaky day on defense. He committed an error in the fifth inning, but immediately made up for it by turning a double play to erase the runner. Turner wasn’t so fortunate in the sixth, after committing a throwing error to allow Ramos to reach first. Chapman then sent an elevated slider over the left-field wall for a two-run homer to cut into the Phillies’ lead.

After the hot start, the Phillies’ bats fell silent, as they only recorded one more hit — a Kyle Schwarber infield single in the fifth — the rest of the game.

Thanks to some solid base running, they still tacked on an insurance run on reliever Erik Miller in the eighth inning. Bryce Harper and Schwarber walked and advanced on a passed ball, and Harper scored on a sacrifice fly from Edmundo Sosa.

Pitching the ninth, José Alvarado allowed a first-pitch homer to Tyler Fitzgerald. He gave up a single to bring the tying run to the plate, but induced a groundout to pick up the save.

Castellanos left the game in the seventh inning with left hip flexor tightness. Max Kepler slid over to right field and Sosa entered the game to play left.