The Phillies’ latest trip through Kansas City left a mess behind, and Cristopher Sanchez was right in the middle of it.
Philadelphia dropped two straight to the Royals, and Monday’s loss at Kauffman Stadium was the roughest of the bunch. With Sanchez on the mound, the Phillies were hammered 15-1, a lopsided defeat that pushed them to 50-41 and left them three games back of Atlanta in the National League East.
Sanchez has been one of the bright spots on the Phillies’ staff this season and earned a spot on the National League All-Star Team, but his road work has become a talking point. On June 25, he allowed five runs in five innings against the Washington Nationals. Eleven days earlier, the Milwaukee Brewers scored four runs off him in six innings in a shutout loss.
Phillies manager Don Mattingly isn’t sounding the alarm, though.
"You're always kind of looking at everything," Mattingly said. "He doesn't seem to be as sharp (on the road) as at home.
I don't know if that has necessarily anything to do with it. Obviously, you don't have the same mound you're used to, but everybody pitches on the road."
Monday got off to a decent start for Philadelphia. Trea Turner opened the game with a double, and Alec Bohm followed with a double that brought Turner home for the first run.
Then the bottom of the first flipped the game fast. Turner tried to start a double play by throwing to first to get Jac Caglianone, but the throw was off target, and Bobby Witt Jr. tied it up. From there, Kansas City took over and piled up six runs in the inning.
Sanchez was gone after 3.1 innings, having allowed nine runs. It was a brutal line, but it doesn’t erase what he’s done elsewhere. He blanked the San Diego Padres over seven innings on May 27 and shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 16.
"I know that it's something that's happened on the road," the ace pitcher said. "I don't really have an answer for that. Maybe not being so familiar with the stadiums, but it's just something that we have to improve."
Even with Monday’s blowup, Sanchez still sits 10th in Major League Baseball with a 2.62 ERA. The Phillies, meanwhile, are about to spend a long stretch away from home, staying on the road until the Thursday after the All-Star game. Later in the summer, they’ll also visit the Seattle Mariners, who lead the American League West, and the Braves, with Sanchez expected to be a key piece in those games.
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