Sánchez dazzles, Harper homers twice — takeaways from Phillies' win over A's

When the Phillies fell to 9-19 on April 24 in Atlanta, there were plenty of negatives. The offense was scuffling, the pitching was underwhelming and the defense was among the worst in the league.

But even after Rob Thomson’s firing, there was one reason for some optimism: the advanced pitching numbers suggested the Phillies were due to even out.

After that final game in Atlanta, Phillies pitchers had a 5.08 ERA, third worst in MLB, but their fielding independent pitching was 3.86. FIP estimates run prevention based on what pitchers can control most directly — strikeouts, walks, hit batters and home runs — removing most batted-ball results from the equation.

That ERA-FIP gap was the largest in the modern era. Eventually, it was bound to close.

Under interim manager Don Mattingly, it has started to. And it was key again Tuesday in the Phillies’ 9-1 win over the Athletics at Citizens Bank Park.

Cristopher Sánchez delivered a dominant eight-inning performance, holding down Oakland’s lineup all night. He struck out 10, allowed three hits and walked one.

The Phillies are now 7-1 over their last eight games, all under Mattingly. During that stretch, their starting pitchers have posted a 1.80 ERA, much closer to what the expected numbers had pointed toward during the roughest part of the season.

The tone is starting with the rotation.

“Starting pitching has been really, really good lately,” Bryce Harper said. “When you have starting pitching like that, it’s pretty easy to go out there as an offense and try to get some runs on the board and know that you don’t have to score more than enough to win a game.”

Again, it was Sánchez who had his stuff working early and often, led by a pitch that somehow keeps getting better.

THE CHANGE

If you look around baseball, it is hard to find a pitch much better than Sánchez’s changeup.

It is a pitch he throws almost exclusively to right-handed hitters. Entering Tuesday, Sánchez had used it 42 percent of the time against righties and just 9 percent against lefties.

Against an Athletics lineup that featured seven right-handed hitters, he got to pitch to his strengths.

Entering the outing, hitters had a .142 average against the changeup while whiffing 48.4 percent of the time. It is a true putaway pitch for the lefty, but he was not afraid to use it in any count against Oakland.

Sánchez threw the changeup 44 percent of the time Tuesday, landing it for strikes at a 67 percent clip. He generated 16 whiffs with it, an eye-popping 70 percent swing-and-miss rate.

He used it early in counts. He used it late. He used it to finish hitters. Sánchez racked up nine of his 10 strikeouts on the changeup.

For him, that was not exactly shocking.

“That’s normal,” Sánchez said through Phillies translator Diego D’Aniello. “At the end, it’s business [as usual] with the changeup. We know the quality of it, so it doesn’t surprise me.”

Mattingly has not seen much of Sánchez from the home dugout yet, but the way the pitch plays was easy to spot.

“He puts you in a bind,” Mattingly said. “He’s got the sinker on both sides of the plate, and the changeup looks just like it. The slider comes in. They all seem to tunnel right out of the same spot, and that’s where it gets tough.”

MAGICAL SEVENTH

The A’s put two baserunners on in the seventh inning, but Sánchez was able to bear down.

After back-to-back singles, Sánchez struck out Tyler Soderstrom on a changeup. Then came a one-pitch groundout. Then another strikeout on the changeup, this time against Darell Hernaiz.

The Phillies’ lefty ace roared as he walked off the mound. A half-inning later, the offense roared too. Sánchez said the emotion came from the moment and the way he felt on the mound.

“It was the overall performance of the team at that point,” Sánchez said. “The location of the pitches too, and how calm I felt on the mound up to that point. Just letting a little bit of emotion out.”

In the bottom of the seventh, the Phillies erupted. Adolis García hit a sacrifice fly to score Trea Turner, who had doubled, making it 2-0. With two outs, they strung together three straight run-scoring swings: an RBI single by Brandon Marsh, a two-run double by J.T. Realmuto and a two-run homer by Bryson Stott.

Instead of scoring all their runs in one early inning, the Phillies broke through late with their starter rolling and the lead already in hand.

Mattingly had felt the game sitting there through the early innings.

“You know you had chances,” he said. “But the guys stayed with it tonight. We finally broke through.”

HARPER GOES DEEP, AGAIN AND AGAIN

The Phillies’ first baseman has been one of the hottest hitters in the game, even if he does not talk like it.

After Monday’s game, he told the broadcast that he still needs to get “better.” If that is the standard, the Phillies could have an MVP-caliber season on their hands.

For the second straight night, Harper went deep. Since April 6, Harper is slashing .340/.435/.660 with seven homers and 19 RBIs.

What Harper is referring to when he talks about improving is likely his chase rate. Entering Tuesday, he was in the 16th percentile of hitters with a 36.3 percent chase rate, a tick higher than last season. It was something Harper said he wanted to work on in 2026.

But he is also seeing more first-pitch strikes than ever, and he has been more aggressive when pitchers enter the zone.

His first homer Tuesday came on a 2-2 pitch against A’s starter Luis Severino. His second came in the three-run eighth — just getting past Zack Gelof’s robbery effort — finishing off a two-homer night and continuing a hot stretch that has carried the Phillies’ offense over the last two days.

The key has been simple: he is hitting mistakes. Harper kept the explanation simple, too.

“Just trying to keep it simple,” the slugger said. “Stack my at-bats each day and just try to go out there and hit strikes.”

Harper has a career-high in-zone contact rate, and it has shown up in his production. After an offseason full of noise around his name, he continues to post star numbers.

Mattingly has seen the same thing from the dugout.

“When he gets going, it seems to just continue,” Mattingly said. “I like the patience when they’re trying not to really throw him a strike and get him to chase. Just be willing to take your walks there is important for us, and to trust the next guy.”

The Phillies have needed that version of Harper. They have also needed the version of their rotation that has shown up lately.

For Sánchez, the goal is to keep pushing.

“I like to chase perfection,” Sánchez said. “That’s something that I always try to work and improve.”

Tuesday was pretty close.