Sánchez stumbles in final bid for All-Star spot

CHICAGO -- Phillies manager Rob Thomson had something important to tell his team on Tuesday, so he gathered everybody together in the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

He first told them that Bryce Harper earned National League Player of the Month honors for a second consecutive month, which got Harper a nice ovation from his teammates. Thomson then told everybody that Cristopher Sánchez was named the NL Pitcher of the Month for June, making Harper and Sánchez the first pair of Phillies teammates to win Player and Pitcher of the Month Awards in the same month since Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton in May 1980.

“The place just erupted,” Thomson said.

It has been a remarkable several weeks for Sánchez, even after allowing a career-high seven runs in four-plus innings in Thursday afternoon’s 10-2 loss to the Cubs. Sánchez allowed a combined six earned runs in five starts in June, going 3-0 with a 1.64 ERA, including the first shutout of his career on June 28. He signed a four-year, $22.5 million contract extension on June 22.

He will learn on Sunday if he will make the NL All-Star team. He has a shot.

“It would mean a lot,” Sánchez said via team interpreter Diego D'Aniello. “As I said in Spring Training, that was a goal that I set for myself. So if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, then let’s just go on and win more games.”

Thomson thought Sánchez struggled Thursday because he felt the effects after throwing the first complete game of his career in last Friday's shutout against the Marlins. Sánchez’s fastball velocity was down against the Cubs. His changeup wasn’t as effective. He lacked command.

“It was not that,” Sánchez said. “I just think that I missed some pitches that I shouldn’t have missed.”

"He’s been excellent; excellent for them,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We put pressure on him in the second inning, and then we finally cracked through. It looked he was a little off with the breaking ball and struggling to throw it for strikes, and we got ourselves in some good counts."

Even after Thursday’s career-worst start, Sánchez is 6-4 with a 2.96 ERA, which is tied for sixth in the National League behind Ranger Suárez (2.27), Chris Sale (2.71), Zack Wheeler (2.74), Jake Irvin (2.80) and Max Fried (2.91).

Sánchez’s teammates roared for him Tuesday, not just because NL Pitcher of the Month is a nice accomplishment, but because they love him as a person and recognize and appreciate the journey he took to get to that moment.

“My teammates getting excited at such great news is very special to me,” he said.

The Phillies acquired Sánchez from Tampa Bay in a Nov. 2019 trade for a then-low-level prospect in Curtis Mead. Sánchez was a hard thrower, but he struggled over 22 big league appearances in 2021-22. His velocity dipped. He couldn’t throw strikes.

Meanwhile, Mead blossomed into a Top 100 prospect.

For a moment, the trade looked lopsided. Sánchez joined the Phillies’ rotation on June 17, 2023, because they had tried everybody else. He posted a 3.32 ERA in 18 appearances (17 starts) last season.

He is now a key piece to Philadelphia's rotation.

“They know how far he’s come,” Thomson said. “They know the work that he’s put in. They appreciate that.”

Thomson was asked if there is something about Sánchez as a person that connects him to his teammates.

“Just his humbleness,” Thomson said. “An example is the guy at the guard shack at [Citizens Bank Park]. I pull in, I stop, I talk to him. He told me one time, he said, ‘Cris Sánchez comes in every day, he stops, he says hello and he talks to me.’ That really tells me a lot about him.”