Series of mistakes spoil Sánchez’s solid start

He pitched five no-hit innings in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to the Pirates in 10 innings. He hit three batters. He walked two. His velocity was down 1.3 mph. He was sick. But Sánchez was good. He has been good since the Phillies recalled him from Triple-A Lehigh Valley on June 17. Sánchez leads baseball in WHIP (0.89) and opponents’ on-base percentage (.238) and is ninth in ERA (2.30 ERA), among 109 pitchers with at least 30 innings since June 17. He has pitched so well that one wonders if the Phillies might focus their efforts elsewhere before Tuesday’s 6 p.m. Trade Deadline.

They have been trying to find more starting pitching.

“He’s been really big for us,” Trea Turner said. “When we really needed somebody to step into that spot, he’s done an unbelievable job.”

Phillies manager Rob Thomson ended Sánchez’s afternoon after the fifth, beginning a mistake-filled finish that capped a highly disappointing weekend. The Phillies lost twice to Pittsburgh to fall a half-game behind the Reds, Marlins and Brewers, who are all tied for the second and third NL Wild Cards.

“When talent doesn’t play well or play smart, you get beat,” Bryce Harper said. “It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It’s still professional baseball.”

Sánchez induced an inning-ending double play to end the fifth. He returned to the dugout to learn he would not pitch the sixth, despite throwing only 73 pitches.

“What happened?” Turner said to Sánchez in the dugout.

Sánchez pointed at his stomach.

“I thought he got hurt,” Turner said. “I didn’t know he was dealing with a stomach bug. I was like, ‘Oh, damn, man.’ An oblique was what I thought. I didn’t know he was going through it.”

“I didn’t feel like I had much energy today,” Sánchez said through the team’s interpreter.

Still, Sánchez wanted to continue.

“I told them that I could go back out, but he wanted to take care of me and he took me out of the game,” Sánchez said.

“He probably had 15 pitches left, top of the order, third time through and he wasn’t feeling well all day,” Thomson said. “He said, ‘I’m OK,’ but I wanted to take care of the kid to make sure he got out of there on a good note.”

Seranthony Domínguez immediately allowed a single to Connor Joe and a home run to Bryan Reynolds to tie the game. The Phillies took a 4-2 lead in the seventh, but with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Turner and Edmundo Sosa collided trying to catch a pop up on the infield.

The ball popped out of Turner’s glove. Joe reached on an error.

“We both called it together,” Sosa said. “We got confused a little bit.”

“Once I started calling it, I heard him and I didn’t want to back off and just be standing there looking at each other,” Turner said. “Just bad communication on my part. I should have let him catch the ball.”

Turner might have been covering for his teammate because Thomson said that is the shortstop’s ball. He has priority on the play. Sosa should have backed off.

Reynolds followed with a single to center. Rookie Johan Rojas did not catch the ball cleanly, allowing Joe to score from first to cut the lead to one. Yunior Marte allowed a run in the eighth to tie the game.

The Phillies then committed a baserunning blunder in the 10th. Turner flew out to right field with runners on second and third and no outs. Pirates right fielder Henry Davis made a strong throw home. Harper retreated back to third. Bohm, who was on second, thought Harper was running. He got caught between second and third.

Pirates catcher Endy Rodriguez threw to second. Harper ran home, but he was thrown out at the plate.

“I saw Bohmer was almost halfway to me,” Harper said. “Once [Rodriguez] released to second, I thought I had an opportunity to get there. He made a good throw and got me.”

“Bohmer just dropped his head and ran up his back,” Thomson said. “Those are all things that we need to fix.”

If Sanchez pitches the sixth, everybody in the bullpen gets pushed back. Maybe Domínguez has different results in the seventh. Maybe Jeff Hoffman or Marte pitches the 10th instead of Andrew Vasquez, who allowed a two-run walk-off homer. Vasquez had not pitched in 10 days.

There were a lot of things that could have or should have happened differently this weekend. They are things that cannot happen during a four-game series this week in Miami.

“Definitely games we need to win, especially if we want to make the postseason and be the team that we’ve been talking about for a while,” Turner said.