Cristopher Sánchez is like the beginning of Shoresy and he declared that he would never allow a run again. In his last 44.2 innings of work, the Sanchize has left opponent offenses in despair.
This sequence to Miguel Andujar was not Sánchez’s best work but I think it captures how streaks like this can work sometimes. He may not always be at his best but pure stuff can be the difference.
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He missed on two uncompetitive changeups to Andujar that make the count 2-0. With the likelihood that a hitter is in swing mode with two outs and a runner on, Sánchez goes back to the changeup and it wasn’t a good one but still gets a whiff.
Because it’s probably smart not to throw four straight changeups to a hitter seeing you a third time, he perfectly locates a front hip sinker for a called strike and it perfectly set up a down and away changeup if Sánchez can make it somewhat competitive.
What a player.
Brad Keller’s Righty Problem
Keller was great against everyone in 2025 but it was especially the case for righties. He was able to throw a four-seam, slider, sinker, and sweeper very effectively to limit righties to a .466 OPS allowed for the season.
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He has not been able to recapture that same magic in 2026 with righties hitting three home runs off of him already, the same amount as 2025, and have a .730 OPS against him overall.
The Phillies did make some pitch usage tweaks from his Cubs tenure. He has backed off the four-seam to throw a lot more sinkers and a few more sweepers. Right-handed hitters have put three four-seam fastballs in play off Keller. Two singles and a Seiya Suzuki home run. There are some tough variance issues going for him.
There might need to be an adjustment on which glove side breaking ball he should use. The sweeper has a .600 slugging allowed from right handed hitters with a 22.5% whiff. The slider hasn’t allowed an extra base hit.
Against righties, he is throwing the sweeper 28% of the time and the slider 19%. Given the success his sweeper had last year, it shouldn’t be backed off entirely but getting the slider up might be a better way to limit the damage.
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Keller’s season overall has been a mixed bag. He was signed to be their sure-fire 8th inning arm because he seemed to carry the rare high floor for a non-closer. But the groundball rate has dropped over 11% from last season with a big increase in flyballs and line drives. It’s not exactly a good sign.
There is also the potential that his 3.80 ERA and 4.12 FIP are a little unsustainable because he has the second-highest HR/FB rate of his career at 18.2%. Keller was at 7.8% with the Cubs last year and never went higher than 15% as a starting pitcher with the Royals. There might be some regression to the mean here but it’s still not what you want out of a reliever making $11 million a year.
Edmundo Sosa has started 3 out of their last 4 games in Left Field
The Phillies have not been able to find a fourth outfielder and have essentially made Edmundo Sosa that despite his inexperience playing the position. Otto Kemp was the first crack but in two different stints with the club is 2 for 25 with no extra base hits.
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Felix Reyes got a crack at it in between and didn’t do much either. He homered off Chris Sale in his first-ever big league at bat but only went 6 for 38 with a .421 OPS overall. Dylan Moore got 12 at-bats as a utility player and did not record a hit. It’s now Sosa, who has a .558 OPS overall and barely knows the position because they have no one else.
The bench is wasting two roster spots on Kemp, who can’t beat Sosa out for time in left field, and Garrett Stubbs as their third catcher. Given the issues the offense has and the age of their core players, that just does not seem like a sustainable way to manage the roster. They are essentially playing with ten or eleven players right now and that probably ends up being a bad thing as this season heads into the summer months.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
