Sanchez struggles, sees Sox stand supreme.
Yesterday, the ace of the Phillies had an uncharacteristically off day. Today, another ace of the Phillies had an uncharacteristically off day. A curse? Some sort of illness spreading through the clubhouse? A fault in our stars? None of the above, in all likelihood; just the vagaries of baseball. Still, that will be of little solace to the Philadelphia faithful, who in a hurry have gone from crowing over their team taking the first two from the detested Yankees in their home stadium to sheepishly watching their heroes drop an opener to the lesser of baseball’s two hosiery-themed clubs.
The early at-bats, in retrospect, were a portent: White Sox hurler Davis Martin struck out the side to begin the first, with Trea Turner down looking and Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper both fanning. The Phillies put a pair of balls on the ground in the second, though they progressed no further before their sixth out was recorded.
They got their first hit in the top of the third when Max Kepler singled to center. The second didn’t take long to show up, as Bryson Stott popped a ball up that flew gently to shallow second, landing gently just past the outstretched glove of a Southside defender. Kyle Schwarber worked a walk, and quite suddenly the visitors went from a dearth of baserunner to a deluge of them. That brought up Harper, and dread thoughts of grand slams in the beleaguered minds of the Sox faithful. Fortunately for them there was no such roundtripper; unfortunately for them, the actual result, a grounder through the right side of the infield that scored two, was only somewhat more palatable.
But soon, Chicago’s younger club struck back. Lenyn Sosa—not, it must be said, Chicago’s more famous Sosa, though he’s still young— singled to left, and Colson Montgomery soon tied it with a shot to right in the third. And the Southside supporters had more to enjoy: one inning later, Luis Robert Jr., still wearing Sox pinstripes despite a surfeit of trade rumors, sent a ball of his own skying to right, giving the home squad a 4-2 lead.
Meanwhile the Fightin’ Phils fought to get their offense running again, though their efforts through the seventh were limited to a few scattered baserunners. Sánchez kept up his efforts, his line blemished though his head unbowed, pitching into the seventh. He put baserunners on with a walk and a double; a fielder’s choice sent a runner home, where he was put out. His suboptimal day ended, Sánchez was pulled for Max Lazar, who ended the inning without further incident.
Unfortunately, “without further incident” could describe the Phillies’ further struggles at the plate in the penultimate inning. Seth Johnson took the mound for the home half of the eighth, and a walk and two bingles resulted in the Sox adding another run. It might’ve stopped there, but a ball bounced off of Harper’s glove as he fell to the dirt, and a failed connection with Johnson prevented the out from being recorded as the sixth Sox run came home.
And thus it was that Phillies had three outs with which to produce four runs, or else endure the taunting lights and sounds of Bill Veeck’s famed exploding scoreboard. Otto Kemp made good contact and sent the ball towards the right field fence, where it was discovered that he hadn’t quite put enough on it to produce his third home run in two days. That was the last gasp for the Phillies in truth if not on the scorecard; by the time the actual last pitch, a 100 MPH fastball taken by Bryson Stott for a called third strike, came around, it was clear that the game was over.
The Phillies are 60-46. They’ll continue the series tomorrow at 7:40.