It was one of those games.<\/p>\n
A 2026 contest with a pitch clock, limited pickoff moves and two starters working fast.<\/p>\n
Just over an hour into Saturday night\u2019s matchup between the Phillies and Orioles in Baltimore, it was already the top of the fifth.<\/p>\n
Cristopher S\u00e1nchez opposed Baltimore\u2019s Shane Baz, and for most of the night, both starters controlled the pace.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez was coming off two good, but not great, home starts against the Dodgers and Yankees. After each outing, he was not especially pleased with his changeup.<\/p>\n
The Phillies\u2019 left-handed ace, always committed to his craft, made sure it was sharper Saturday night in a 5-0 win over the Orioles.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez threw 99 pitches over six scoreless innings, allowed three hits, walked five and struck out 11. Three of those strikeouts came on the changeup, which helped set up his sinker and slider in key counts.<\/p>\n
Again, you could argue S\u00e1nchez did not have his best command. The five walks made that clear.<\/p>\n
But he kept battling, kept making important pitches and got the defensive support the Phillies have too often lacked lately.<\/p>\n
Alec Bohm made a leaping catch to take away a hit and end the second. Justin Crawford made a sliding grab to open the fourth. In the fifth, Trea Turner made one of his best plays of the season, diving to his left, popping up and throwing to first in one smooth motion.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez entered the game with a .337 batting average on balls in play against him, the highest mark by any qualified Phillies pitcher. On Saturday, the defense behind him was steady.<\/p>\n
S\u00e1nchez never blinked, but the Phillies eventually got to Baz.<\/p>\n
In the fifth, Bryson Stott worked a one-out walk. Crawford grounded out, moving him into scoring position. Then Bryan De La Cruz, who entered the night batting .500 through his first 14 at-bats with the Phillies, got a center-cut fastball and ripped it back up the middle at 109.2 mph.<\/p>\n
Stott scored, and the Phillies had their breakthrough.<\/p>\n
This is not exactly a new conversation, but it still matters. The Phillies have spent the better part of two years searching for more right-handed offense. So when a right-handed bat joins the club and starts producing, it stands out.<\/p>\n
Lately, that has been De La Cruz.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old played for Don Mattingly in Miami and has been productive when given regular at-bats. Across his final two seasons of regular playing time with the Marlins and Pirates, De La Cruz had at least 46 extra-base hits in each year, with 162-game averages of 22 homers and 78 RBIs.<\/p>\n
He struggled with Atlanta in 2025, finished the season with the Yankees\u2019 Triple-A affiliate and later won Dominican Winter League MVP honors.<\/p>\n
The Phillies signed him to a minor-league deal in the offseason. He produced at Triple A, and Philadelphia gave him a major-league chance before he could opt out of his contract.<\/p>\n
He’s posted a 1.117 OPS.<\/p>\n
So far, so good.<\/p>\n
If the Phillies are unable to add a right-handed bat before Monday\u2019s deadline, or if the market forces them elsewhere, De La Cruz has at least given them something to think about.<\/p>\n
Stott would later work a 15-pitch at-bat against Baz, which resulted in a base-hit, knocking the Orioles’ right-hander out of the game. He went 6 1\/3 innings and allowed one run. That was key for what the offense would stir up late.<\/p>\n
After S\u00e1nchez exited, the uneasy feeling around the Phillies\u2019 bullpen returned.<\/p>\n
This time, it did not last.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Bowlan, Jos\u00e9 Alvarado and Jhoan Duran handled the seventh, eighth and ninth, finishing off the shutout and giving the Phillies a needed win after four straight losses.<\/p>\n
Bohm, Brandon Marsh and Crawford added RBI singles in the eighth against the Orioles’ ‘pen, giving the back end some cushion.<\/p>\n
For a team that has spent much of the second half searching for cleaner baseball, this was a steadier night. The starter battled. The defense made plays. A right-handed bat delivered. The bullpen finished it.<\/p>\n
The Phillies will have a chance to take the series Sunday against the Orioles.<\/p>\n
Then comes Monday\u2019s trade deadline, with the same questions still hanging over them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was one of those games. A 2026 contest with a pitch clock, limited pickoff moves and two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,11350,17086],"class_list":["post-257488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-phillies-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}