The last time Cristopher Sánchez allowed a run, the Philadelphia Phillies were 10-19 amid their second game under the leadership of interim manager Don Mattingly. It was April 30.
What followed was back-to-back walk-off victories that set the stage for a May turnaround, which has featured a streak of brilliance from Sánchez, last year’s runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award.
With a spotless fourth inning on Wednesday during a 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres, the southpaw made Phillies history. At the time, the lefty pushed his scoreless innings streak to 41 2/3 innings, topping the 41-inning streak that Baseball Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander authored in 1911, a mark that, before Wednesday, was the franchise’s longest such streak since at least 1893, when the mound moved to its current distance.
Untouchable across his past five starts, Sánchez rewrote a Phillies record that was 115 years old. Then he kept that streak alive throughout a seven-inning, nine-strikeout outing.
Buoyed by marvelous defense, Sánchez blanked the Padres. In the process, he became the second MLB pitcher since 1913 to go an entire month without allowing a run despite racking up at least 30 innings on the bump. Orel Hershiser also accomplished that feat in September 1988 while starring for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hershiser, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, owns the longest single-season scoreless innings streak in the live-ball era, in other words from 1920-on.
The three-time All-Star right-handed hurler piled up 59 straight frames of shutout ball in 1988, per Langs. Following Wednesday’s start, Sánchez’s streak is at 44 2/3 innings.
Sánchez was feeling it on Wednesday, and he was loving the support he was getting from his defense. Most notably, rookie center fielder Justin Crawford slammed into the wall while snagging a deep fly ball to right-center that seven-time All-Star Manny Machado launched.
Philadelphia scored two of its three runs in the sixth inning. Kyle Schwarber logged an RBI single that frame.
In the ninth, Trea Turner went yard for the second game in a row, blasting a solo shot to left to give the Phillies an insurance run and effectively secure what ended up being a sweep of the Padres.