Cristopher Sánchez pitches eight scoreless innings in Phillies' 9-1 win vs. Athletics

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on May 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — When Jesús Luzardo became the first Phillies pitcher to complete seven innings this season in his start last week against the San Francisco Giants, he didn’t realize until he walked back into the clubhouse and Zack Wheeler told him.

“Then we kind of chuckled about it, and said, ‘We got to pick it up,’” Luzardo said.

On Tuesday night, Cristopher Sánchez helped lead the way. The lefty ace’s longest outing this season before Tuesday was 6 2/3 innings. He blew past that with eight shutout innings in the Phillies’ 9-1 victory to open the series against the Athletics.

Sánchez’s signature changeup was sharp as ever, with a 70% whiff rate. He capped the eighth inning by striking out Brent Rooker, his 10th of the night, on his 97th pitch. It was a changeup, of course.

While the final score was lopsided — courtesy of two homers from Bryce Harper— Sánchez pitched without much run support until the seventh.

Early on, the Phillies had a lot of traffic on the bases against A’s starter Luis Severino, but struggled to cash in. They stranded the bases loaded in the first inning, and had two runners on in both the second and fourth innings without scoring a run.

Harper took matters into his own hands in the third, leading off with his first homer of the game. He fell behind 0-2 but battled back and deposited Severino’s sweeper into the right-field seats to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead.

While Sánchez shut down the A’s, the Phillies finally added some insurance in the seventh inning. Trea Turner, who was hitless in his first three at-bats, doubled to left field off A’s reliever Mark Leiter Jr., advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Adolis García.

J.T. Realmuto drove in two runs with a double to center field, chasing Leiter from the game. Then, Bryson Stott demolished a fastball to the second deck in right field to make it a 6-0 lead.

The Phillies added three more runs in the eighth. Justin Crawford doubled and scored on a single from Turner, before Harper blasted a fastball 408 feet for a two-run homer to the shrubbery in center field.

Sánchez held the A’s to three hits — all singles — and one walk.

His ability to provide length for his team is a positive sign that the Phillies’ starters are rediscovering their identity. In 2025, the Phillies’ starting rotation led baseball in innings pitched with 929 2/3. But over their early-season slide this year, the staff often struggled to get out of the fifth or sixth inning.

Jhoan Duran, who was activated off the injured list earlier on Tuesday, pitched the ninth with a larger lead than the closer is accustomed to. The Phillies righty had not appeared in a game since April 11. He allowed a leadoff single and three walks to force in a run, but struck out Brett Harris looking to end the game.