Philadelphia Phillies at Toronto Blue Jays

It wasn’t the scoreless start many have come to expect over the past several weeks, but Phillies starter Cristopher Sánchez turned in another impressive outing on Monday night at Rogers Centre. After surrendering his first earned run over the previous 50 2/3 innings against San Diego last Wednesday, Sánchez allowed two earned runs over seven innings in the series-opening 5-2 win against the Blue Jays. Leading 5-0, Sánchez allowed the first run in the bottom of the third on a double off the bat of Myles Straw, followed by a pair of groundouts by Tyler Heineman and Yohendrick Piñango. Ernie Clement then took an 0-1 fastball over the wall in left for a solo home run in the fifth to plate the second run. It appeared as though the Blue Jays were on the verge of scoring for a third time after Piñango began the sixth with a double and ended up on third when right fielder Adolis García bobbled the ball. Sánchez proceeded to strike out George Springer, Nathan Lukes and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to escape the threat, emphatically pumping his fists on the way back to the dugout in celebration. The Blue Jays pressured again in the seventh, putting runners on first and second with two out. Sánchez appeared to motion to manager interim Don Mattingly in an effort to stay in the game. He did, and the decision paid off, as he got Brandon Valenzuela to ground out to shortstop Trea Turner to end the inning on his 107th pitch of the night. Sánchez allowed four hits, walked one and struck out 10. It was the fourth time Sánchez had reached double-digit strikeouts in a start this year. “I don’t like leaving guys on base and I felt great today, even though I had close to 100 pitches,” Sánchez said postgame. “A big thank you to the manager for trusting me with that, and I told him that after the game.”