PHOENIX — Rob Thomson started leaning heavily toward Cristopher Sanchez starting Game 4 of the National League Championship Series when he saw the lefty and right-handed Taijuan Walker throw simulated games on Monday in Philadelphia.
The lack of anything crazy happening in terms of extra innings in the three games since meant Thomson could tell Sanchez Wednesday and the media Thursday that he would get the ball Friday.
“Sanchie’s pitched very well for us since he’s come up,” Thomson said Friday. “He’s been very consistent. … He threw the ball extremely well, filling the strike zone, changeup was excellent, velocity was good. I just think he’s pitching very well. If he’s throwing strikes and has his changeup going, it’s a good matchup.”
Sanchez was excellent this season. He went 3-5 in 18 starts, logging 99.1 innings and stabilizing a rotation that searched most of the spring for a reliable fifth starter. Sanchez’s WHIP of 1.05 is the fifth-lowest among all qualified pitchers since he returned to the bigs for good in mid-June. But against the Diamondbacks in this Game 4, he didn’t get a lengthy chance.
He went just 2.1 innings, allowing only two hits but two runs, and only one of them earned.
“I’ve been working really hard for this,” Sanchez said via a translator after the Phillies’ 2-1 Game 3 loss Thursday night. “I’m confident.”
The matchups work in his favor. Sanchez’s difference maker is his changeup. He threw it more than ever this year – 32.7 percent of the time, up from 20.1 percent in 2022. Batters are hitting just .148 off it, slugging a minuscule .274 and whiffing 43.0 percent of the time.
Arizona is a right-handed heavy lineup, which might have favored Walker getting the chance. They hit a point higher against lefties at .251 but slug 20 points lower (.394 vs. 414 vs. righties). Arizona slugs just .387 against changeups this season. Tommy Pham (.143 BA), Corbin Carroll (.208 BA) and Ketel Marte (.382 slugging) are among those that don’t handle the changeup particularly well.
No one is more supportive of Sanchez than Jose Alvarado, whom Sanchez has known since they were in the Tampa organization and who considers Sanchez family. (The Phillies acquired Sanchez in November 2019, Alvarado a year later.)
“A piece of advice that I always give him is that I remind him that he is ready,” Alvarado said. “He is ready to compete. He is ready to show the type of pitcher that he is, what he is capable of. I don’t want him to forget that. I tell him to keep his confidence up. He is showing good results, and we all trust him. We all have plenty of confidence in him.”
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The Diamondbacks finished second in MLB with 166 steals and second in stolen base percentage at 85.7. Yet through three games in the NLCS, Arizona has stolen one base, Lourdes Gurriel in the ninth inning of Game 3. That came off Craig Kimbrel, who got tagged with the walk-off loss and has a history of being indifferent at best to the running game.
Arizona was 7-for-10 on the basepaths in their first five postseason games. It certainly didn’t help that the Diamondbacks had only 11 total base-runners in the first two games in Philadelphia, limiting their opportunities to run and diminishing their appetite for risk.
Count Game 5 starter Zack Wheeler among those in a quandary.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe teams are just more hesitant about giving up an out maybe. We have one of the best catchers behind the plate on our team, pop time throwing-wise. So maybe they’re a little more hesitant to possibly get an out.”
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Thomson had a chat after Game 3 with Orion Kerkering, who endured his toughest outing as a big leaguer. He allowed all three batters he faced to get hits, giving up a run and blowing the 1-0 lead he inherited in the seventh.
Thomson wasn’t the only one to check in with the 22-year-old, and he’s happy with what he heard back.
“I don’t see any effect on him at all,” Thomson said. “I know that, myself, a whole bunch of guys were making sure he’s OK. And I think he is. I don’t think he’s affected one bit.”
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The Phillies last year lost four road games in the playoffs, three of them in Game 2s on the road. Each time, they rebounded to win the next game. (The fourth was Game 6 of the World Series.) The same held this year after dropping Game 2 of the NLDS in Atlanta.
Arizona’s manager believes his team has the momentum to stop that streak.
“Momentum is a real thing,” Torey Lovullo said. “You’re right back in it. The narrative has definitely changed. And I think our team is always ready to go out and scrap, fight, battle, do whatever they have to do to win a baseball game.”
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