The one thing that kept Phillies fans from completely bottoming out these last two weeks is that their rival had it much worse. Philadelphia simply cannot hit, which has led to them facing an embarrassing reality: They might be worse than the Mets.
That danger is as close to being within reach as anyone would like. The Mets ended a 12-game losing skid on Wednesday, and that long-awaited win tied New York with Philadelphia at 8-16 for last place in the NL East, as well as the worst record in the National League entering April 23. Philadelphia now wears the badge for longest losing streak in Major League Baseball at eight games.
The good news? Philadelphia is running out its ace, Cristopher Sánchez, Thursday afternoon against the Cubs. The bad news? Chicago historically owns Sánchez. There isn't a worse time for our guy to be facing one of the very few teams that has his number. That's just our luck.
Cristopher Sánchez's career numbers vs. Cubs put Phillies in danger of falling under Mets in standings
Let's be clear, though. We still have faith that Sánchez is the team's best bet to win a game. He's off to a strong start, leading the league with a 1.69 FIP, 269 ERA+, and a 1.5 bWAR entering Thursday. But all bets are off when he faces the Cubs.
In three career starts, Sánchez boasts a 1.705 WHIP against Chicago, his third-worst mark against any MLB team. He has a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 innings, too. But, Sánchez has faced the Cubs this season, and he was successful. On April 13, he struck out eight batters at Citizens Bank in six innings, allowing two runs. Can he replicate that start? Or does history tell us that he is due for another clunker against the Cubs? We'll lean on the side of positivity, but only for now. There needs to be some semblance of hope that Philadelphia won't have a worse record than the Mets this early on in spite of New York losing a dozen consecutive games. It just doesn't make sense that anyone could be worse.
With J.T. Realmuto now on the injured list, the lineup takes a major hit. The offense was already struggling mightily, so losing a veteran who was somewhat producing doesn't do this team any favors. That places even more pressure on Sánchez to hold it down at Wrigley Field. Fingers crossed that his worst days of pitching against the Cubs are behind him. This game on Thursday shouldn't be that important, but in reality, it is.
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