Phillies’ genius pitch strategy works to perfection for Cristopher Sánchez in Game 1

All season we've been hearing about Cristopher Sánchez and how he has become a legitimate ace for the Philadelphia Phillies. And we've been watching it with our own eyes as the left-hander has taken over the mantle from Zack Wheeler, for the time being at least, and put together a Cy Young worthy campaign.

On Saturday, we saw the apex of Sánchez's ascent as he dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers for much of Game 1 of the NLDS. He cruised through five innings before running into trouble with two outs in the sixth inning. His success could be attributed in part to a brilliant strategy that it looks like the Phillies employed against the Dodgers that began back in April.

Cristopher Sánchez finally broke out his changeup against the Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLDS

Sánchez threw his world-class changeup a lot on Saturday night in front of the raucous Citizens Bank Park crowd to get Red October started. However, he didn't show his best pitch to the Dodgers as much during the regular season, a plan that seemed to work to perfection.

Sánchez faced the defending World Series champions twice this season and didn't use his pitch arsenal the same way that he did against every other opponent in his other 30 starts. In his two starts against the Dodgers he threw his changeup much less than in his other starts.

As The Athletic's Matt Gelb noted before the NLDS began, Sánchez used his changeup 38 percent of the time this season in 30 of his outings. In two starts against the Dodgers? He used it only 22.6 percent, thanks to Los Angeles' propensity to hit changeups hard (subscription required).

Not letting the Dodgers see his best pitch in the regular season looks like it was by design.

In Game 1 of the NLDS, on the biggest stage, Sánchez broke out his changeup against the Dodgers, with tremendous success. He threw his offspeed offering 38 times of his 94 pitches — that's a 40 percent usage rate. He generated 12 of his 18 whiffs with the changeup for a ridiculous 63 percent whiff rate (he got six whiffs between his sinker and slider).

Sánchez finished his night after 5 2/3 innings with a 3-2 lead after giving up a two-run double to Enrique J. (Kiké) Hernández in the sixth inning. He allowed just the two runs on four hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. It was a stellar outing for the 28-year-old, despite the late blemish.

Using his changeup again definitely helped.