PHILADELPHIA — Even in the special year that has been Cristopher Sanchez’s 2024, last week stands out above the rest.
Sanchez and his wife welcomed their first child Monday. The first-time All-Star who signed a long-term contract that could earn up to $56.5 million over the next six years then learned he’ll get the ball for Game 2 against the Mets Sunday in the National League Division Series.
“It’s just all been really special,” Sanchez said via a translator before Game 1. “I think there’s nothing that beats getting home to my kid right now. I’m just spending time with him, holding him every five minutes. Just all around, being all over him. That’s just something I can’t describe right now.”
The birth timed out perfectly for the team’s bye week. He’ll cap his son’s first week on earth on the mound, manager Rob Thomson heeding Sanchez’s home and road splits in plotting his rotation. Sanchez has a 2.21 ERA in 17 starts at the Bank and a 5.02 ERA in 14 away starts. Opponents are hitting .222 off him at home and .307 away.
Sanchez isn’t quite sure why, but at this point of the year, that isn’t the most pressing question.
“It’s something I just can’t explain,” Sanchez said. “I just feel really comfortable here, and the fans give me that ability to be comfortable at home.”
Sanchez went 11-9 with a 3.32 ERA on the season. He didn’t flag as the season went on, even while surpassing his previous highs for innings pitched. He made one appearance last postseason, getting seven outs and allowing two runs (one earned) in Game 4 of the NLCS against Arizona.
Thomson had been noncommittal all week while he and his staff vetted the decision. Aaron Nola has been the No. 2 starter each of the last two postseasons in a formidable duo with Zack Wheeler. But the combination of splitting left-handed starters in Games 2 and 4 and having the two starters least likely to need massive bullpen intervention in Games 1 and 3 helped make Sanchez make sense for Sunday.
Sanchez goes into his start buoyed by Thomson’s faith, and plenty more.
“It shows that he trusts me a lot,” he said. “So I sort of have a chip on my shoulder, but no pressure on that. I feel good with that. I like that he trusts me. And just as always, give the best of myself and do what I have to do.”
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The rest vs. rust quandary the Phillies reckoned with during the week off looked different for everyone. For Bryce Harper, a week of rest may be particularly beneficial.
Harper dealt with intermittent soreness in his right elbow and wrist in a power-dampened August. It was unrelated to the Tommy John surgery in that elbow in 2022.
“I think the bye helped a lot of us, I think our whole team,” Harper said. “We kind of needed that, just the reset, mentally, physically. I thought we had a good week. … I think a lot of us really needed that week to kind of recover a little bit and get going. I feel good mentally. I feel good physically.”
Harper’s power numbers dipped in the second half. He hit just six homers and had 20 RBIs in his last 56 games, though he hit .282. He played 145 games, the most since his 2019 debut with the Phillies, and reached 30 homers for the fifth time.
He’s now in the part of the season where he’s been most spectacular: In 30 playoff games as a Phillie, he has 11 homers, 21 RBIs and a stratospheric OPS of 1.137.
“I think as players you get to this point of the season, every team has the same goal,” Harper said. “You just have to go out there and play your game.”
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Thomson was nearing his third decade with the New York Yankees in 2009 when Carlos Mendoza was hired for the Class A coaching staff in Staten Island. He would by 2012 become a defensive instructor in the organization, collaborating with Thomson on organization-wide plans for spring training.
Mendoza was the Yankees bench coach, a job Thomson once held, when the Mets hired him to fill their managerial vacancy last November. He’s hoping to take a playoff underdog in his first postseason as the manager on the kind of run that Thomson did in 2022.
“I love Mendy,” Thomson said. “He’s a really good baseball man, he understands the game. He understands players and he respects players, so he knows how to treat them. He understands how difficult this game is.”
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The only pending mystery for the Phillies NLDS roster reveal was the identity of the 12th pitcher, which became Kolby Allard. The lefty beat out struggling starter Taijuan Walker and shorter-use options like Max Lazar.
The clincher for Allard was length.
“He’s going to probably give us the most length if we get into an extra-inning game,” Thomson said. “The (extra inning) rules go back to Abner Doubleday rules, so I just wanted as much length as we could get.”
Allard, 27, had a 2-0 record and 5.00 ERA in 27 innings. He’s never pitched in the postseason before. He allowed four runs and six hits in three innings to the Mets on Sept. 14, then tossed two scoreless innings on Sept. 19.
The Mets are right-handed heavy, only Brandon Nimmo and Jess Winker hitting from the left side. The Mets had a .769 OPS against lefties this year, fifth-best in baseball. Allard makes four lefties and four righties in the bullpen.
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The Mets made two changes to their roster from the Wild Card series, one of them Game 1 starting pitcher Kodai Senga. He and Tylor Megill are on the roster. Megill was unavailable against the Brewers after throwing 100 pitches in Game 1 of Monday’s doubleheader to get the Mets to the postseason.
Off the roster are Max Kranick and Huascar Brazoban, neither of whom pitched against the Brewers.
