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While the question won’t haunt manager Rob Thomson, it will be repeatedly presented through thousands of Twitter messages, podcast asides, column critiques, blog accusations and microphone blather blurts.
How could he possibly have lifted pitcher Cristopher Sanchez Sunday after five innings and all of 73 pitches?
As it turned out, Thomson would have five more mostly alarming innings to come up with an answer or three.
“A few reasons,” he said after another Phillies base-running mistake, this one courtesy of Alec Bohm, helped pave the way to a 6-4 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Among the reasons?
“It was the top of the order (coming up in the sixth inning),” Thomson said during a recorded post-game media session in Pittsburgh. And the ever popular, “third time through” the lineup was mentioned prominently. But then came the primary reason, that of Sanchez “wasn’t feeling well.
“Stomach upset,” the manager said. “I wanted to … make sure he got out of there on a right note.”
Sanchez has been coming on strong lately. He entered at 0-3 but with a recently decreasing 2.98 ERA. He had kept the Pirates hitless through five but did hit three of their batters along the way. By Thomson’s observations, while acknowledging the 26-year-old lefty hadn’t allowed any hits, “I didn’t think he was as sharp as he was before.”
So that, and the case of Sanchez’s fluttering stomach, was enough for Thomson to remove the guy with a 2-0 lead. In came reliever Seranthony Dominguez, who since his recent return from the Injured List, also hasn’t been as sharp as he was before. Dominguez proved it when he allowed the second batter he faced, Bryan Reynolds, to pop a two-run shot into the right-field stands for a tied game.
Maybe it was Thomson’s stomach that was a little upset when that happened.
“I had a little stomach ache going on and I didn’t feel like I had too much energy today,” Sanchez said through team translator Diego Ettedgui. He added he “felt good” enough, however, to come out for the sixth inning if Thomson allowed.
“Even if I don’t feel well,” Sanchez added, “I’m going out there to compete.”
Regardless of what the fan/media critics say or scream, Thomson will have no problem shrugging it off and going out there Monday in Miami and keep competing. He’s not a manager who plays the angles to make himself look good. But apparently he’s also a manager who plays the numbers, as in those of the analytical kind.
Third time through? Thomson probably figured the odds were such that the no-hitter was on life support. Besides … there were those other numbers Thomson and his pitch counters were paying attention to, saying Sanchez “probably had about 15 pitches left.”
Sanchez last pitched on July 24. In what became a 3-2 loss, he went seven strong innings and threw 92 pitches along the way. That was by far his longest outing of his short season, which began with his first major league start in April, saw him returned to Lehigh Valley, then make a return trip to the Phillies’ rotation on June 17. He has served as the fifth starter ever since, but in recent weeks has been speculated as a guy whose spot in the rotation will soon be filled by whichever veteran starter Phils president Dave Dombrowski acquires by the Tuesday evening (6 p.m.) trade deadline.
You can never have enough pitching, the old cliche dictates, and for this year’s Phillies, with top two starters Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola so inconsistent, and especially with a talent-rich group of offensive studs looking like anything but, that could never be truer.
Besides, even with Jose Alvarado out and Dominguez still trying to find his groove, the Phillies still have a strong and effective bullpen. All of which told Thomson the time was right to let the kid enjoy the fruits of his five innings of no-hit labor and leave it at that.
Oops.
The disagreeables will argue that never should you deprive the guy of a chance to keep going in such a situation. After all, maybe he can be lifted after allowing his first hit? Or his second…
That would be managing from the gut, which Rob Thomson often does. It’s what he should have done in this situation, too.
Of course, there was a lot more wrong with this Phillies team over the weekend than taking Sanchez out of a game prematurely.
The Phillies continue to shrug off chances to turn scoring chances into big innings. They continue to run the bases with their heads and sometimes their minds down. And the fielding too often is showing signs of stress.
Offensively, both Trea Turner and now Nick Castellanos are foremost in the coming up small at the plate department.
While Turner has had issues most of the season in making an adjustment, drawing many comparisons to the way Castellanos went from a 30-homer guy in Cincinnati to an offensively clueless guy for most of last season, Castellanos turned it all around and made the NL All-Star team this summer.
But he had been showing signs then of slippage. Castellanos was slashing .314/.358/.505 on July 1. He enters a series opener in Miami on July 31 slashing .162/.194/.303 for this nasty month.
Not a good trend, but one that might move Dombrowski to act before the deadline. Through various sublime to ridiculous rumors, it appears the Phillies president is after a veteran outfielder with power, along with a fifth starter to supplant Sanchez.
That seems to be the trend, anyway.
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