5 Phillies thoughts: Cristopher Sánchez’s breakout, Alec Bohm’s slump and more
Taking the temperature of a dominant Phillies team as it heads to London for a two-game series against the Mets.
After a series sweep against the returning Rhys Hoskins and his first-place Milwaukee Brewers, the Phillies sit at 44-19 as they head to London for a two-game set against the New York Mets. Here are five thoughts on the state of the Phillies, who continue to look like a well-oiled machine:
Cristopher Sánchez continuing to blossom
Sánchez did not receive run support in his start against the Brewers on Tuesday night, but he was on point, building on the momentum he generated during a tremendous month of May in which he posted a 2.03 ERA in five starts across 31.0 innings.
Sánchez threw six innings of one-run ball against Milwaukee, allowing just four hits, walking one and striking out three. He threw only 83 pitches — Sánchez likely could have given Phillies manager Rob Thomson one more inning if necessary, but with three right-handed hitters up for Milwaukee to begin the seventh, the Phillies’ skipper opted to call it a night for the southpaw Sánchez and hand the ball to right-handed reliever José Ruiz.
Sánchez was running out of chances to impress before sticking in the Phillies’ starting rotation midway through 2023, and he has made another significant leap this year. Sánchez has embraced what has become his money pitch, a nasty changeup that is effective against hitters in either batter’s box.
Sánchez now owns a 2.71 ERA and 2.50 FIP. His ascension into one of the sport’s best young left-handed starters has been a massive player development success for the Phillies.
Speeding By
In recent years, the Phillies have adopted an identity built around slugging the baseball and pitching with power and velocity. But it is also a roster filled with great athletes who move well.
In fact, on Baseball Savant’s sprint speed leaderboard, the Phillies had three players among the 15 with the highest sprint speed (of all players with at least 10 opportunities) entering Wednesday’s series-finale against Milwaukee. What is just as impressive is that nearly every position player on their team is at least an average runner.
Player Sprint Speed (ft / sec) MLB rank (out of 448 players)
Johan Rojas 29.8 6th
Trea Turner 29.7 12th
Edmundo Sosa 29.6 15th
Whit Merrifield 29.1 32nd
Bryson Stott 28.8 49th
J.T. Realmtuo
28.6 69th
Cristian Pache
28.4 87th
Brandon Marsh 28.1 116th
Kody Clemens 28.0 125th
Nick Castellanos 27.6 184th
Garrett Stubbs 27.4 202nd
Bryce Harper 26.9 266th
Alec Bohm 26.1 354th
Kyle Schwarber 25.0
