Ever since Zack Wheeler went on down last August, Cristopher Sánchez hasn’t missed a beat in taking up the mantle of staff ace for the Philadelphia Phillies. Asuide from his role in red pinstripes, Sánchez is also currently serving as the number one hurler for the Dominican Republic in this year’s World Baseball Classic, and he showed once again on Friday why he’s not just the best pitcher on the Phillies, but one of the best in the entire world. After a rough first outing in the WBC, it’s good to see Sánchez clutch up in a do-or-die game.
Sánchez’s tournament started out on a sour note, as the 29-year-old was roughed up for three earned runs on six hits and a walk, while recording only four outs against an underwhelming Nicaraguan team. In fairness to Sánchez, he did make WBC history in that game as the first pitcher in tournament history to record four strikeouts in an inning, but aside from that factoid, there wasn’t much positivity to glean from the performance.
Thankfully for Philles fans, Cristopher Sánchez flipped the switch on Friday night vs. Korea
Boy oh boy, did the lanky southpaw flip the script in his next start. In the first matchup of the quarterfinal round, the Dominicans took on a Korean team light on pitching, but with plenty of thump in their lineup. Sánchez was brilliant through five innings, yielding only two hits and one walk while punching out eight opposing hitters on an economical 63 pitches. Team Korea was utterly overmatched on both sides of the ball, as they tallied only two hits in a 10-0 mercy rule-shortened drubbing.
Having advanced past the quarterfinals, Sánchez and the Dominicans will next match up with a United States squad that was heavily favored to win the entire tournament, but has fallen victim to shoddy play and managerial ineptitude in recent days. Whichever one of those two heavyweights makes it out of that game will compete for a gold medal on Tuesday in Miami. If it is the Dominican Republic that makes it out, there’s a good chance we see Cristopher Sánchez toe the slab once again for all the marbles.
The dominance displayed by Sánchez on Friday should be welcome news to Phillies fans, as longtime ace Zack Wheeler’s return timeline is still up in the air, and there’s no guarantee exactly how close to the peak of his powers he’ll be when he takes the mound. The Phillies need Sánchez to be the frontline hurler for an opening day rotation that should include a recently-extended Jesús Luzardo, top prospect Andrew Painter, warm body Taijuan Walker and veteran Aaron Nola, who is in the midst of crafting his own WBC redemption arc.