Philadelphia Phillies fans' hearts sank on Tuesday night after starter Cristopher Sánchez was pulled only two innings into his outing against the hated division rival New York Mets. The left-hander's fifth start of the year was a worryingly uncharacteristic struggle, as he labored through 58 pitches.
Things didn't get any better for the Phillies or fans when the team announced later in the game that Sánchez had been removed with "left forearm soreness."
Gulp.
That initial ominous news didn't sound good. Although after the game, manager Rob Thomson and Sánchez himself put a positive spin on things, per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki. More positive than anyone was expecting, at least.
Phillies offer surprisingly promising Cristopher Sánchez injury update
While Philadelphia waited with bated breath for an update from New York on Wednesday, we got some more good news. Thomson told reporters that Sánchez is feeling better — and wanted to play catch, per Zolecki. Smartly, they didn't let him. They haven't even scheduled an MRI at this time, so they're running with their initial diagnosis that there's nothing wrong structurally.
Phew!
That's certainly promising, although we're obviously not out of the woods yet. Sánchez will play catch on Friday, when the Phillies are in Chicago to open a weekend series with the Cubs, to see how his arm responds.
Sánchez missing any length of extended time would be a huge blow to the Phillies' rotation. Coming off an All-Star 2024 season, the 28-year-old had upped his velocity early on and had been off to a blistering start. Before Tuesday's two innings of subpar work, he had a 2.96 ERA and 1.15 WHIP with 31 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings. He had just recorded his career high in strikeouts the start prior, with 12 against the San Francisco Giants.
The fact that the team hasn't scheduled an MRI is good news. Although that could change.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski provided some more details about why no additional test was planned (subscription required), according to The Athletic's Matt Gelb. He offered a surprising tidbit of information: that Sánchez wasn't 100 percent before his start on Tuesday.
“I didn’t even know this at the time: He was achy with his body yesterday. I mean, his whole body," Dombrowski said, per Gelb. "So afterwards, when they checked him structurally, they really didn’t find anything. And today, they’re not finding anything either. So we’re going to take it easy. We’re gonna be careful.”
Let's hope that's it and all that comes from a situation that at first seemed dire turns out to be just a rotation shuffle to give Sánchez some extra days of rest.