Cristopher Sánchez pitches eight stellar innings, Kyle Schwarber homers in Phillies’ win over Marlins

MIAMI — As soon as the ball left his bat, Kyle Schwarber knew it was gone. He took a few slow steps out of the batter’s box, watching as it carried past the center field wall.

Before Schwarber had stepped up to the plate in the eighth inning, the Phillies had only mustered three hits. The offense hadn’t given Cristopher Sánchez, who dazzled through eight innings against the Marlins, much by way of run support.

Schwarber had cooled off over the last few weeks after a hot start to the season, but he ensured that Sánchez was in position for the win. He crushed his 23rd homer of the season 428 feet, securing the 2-1 win over Miami and the series win, too.

Coupled with the Mets’ loss on Thursday to the Braves, the Phillies (45-30) are now tied with New York for first place in the National League East heading into a weekend series between the teams at Citizens Bank Park.

Schwarber is slugging just .344 in June this year. It was his fourth homer of the month and first since June 13.

“It’s frustrating at times, but you just have to be able to stay with the work and stay with the consistency,” he said. “It sometimes makes you want to do drastic things and change. But I felt good and just wasn’t getting results. So it was nice to be able to put one on the board right there, and get Sánchy the win and Kerk close it out.”

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Sánchez did not allow a single walk, and scattered just five hits. His trademark changeup was as effective as ever, generating 10 whiffs. Of the 91 pitches he threw, 70 were strikes.

“I’m attacking the zone early in the count and just executing the game plan that we have before every game,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter.

For the first 6⅓ innings, the Phillies couldn’t seem to figure out Marlins starter Edward Cabrera. They had only two hits — singles from Bryson Stott and Alec Bohm — off of the Miami right-hander, until he was lifted after only 82 pitches.

“I felt like he did a really good job of being in or around the zone, just around it,” Schwarber said. “There wasn’t many big misses, and he was able to kind of work off the small misses and kind of set up other things.”

It took one pitch from reliever Cade Gibson for the the Phillies’ fortunes to change. Max Kepler singled on a first-pitch slider, advancing Bohm to third base. Otto Kemp was hit by a pitch to load the bases, setting up an RBI force out from Stott when Miami third baseman Connor Norby couldn’t make a clean throw.

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The Marlins had just as much trouble with Sánchez. The only run he allowed was scored on an infield dribbler, which cashed in a leadoff double in the fifth inning. He retired the final 10 batters he faced.

“He was just phenomenal tonight,” said manager Rob Thomson. “He really was. Strike percentage was over 70%; the first pitch strikes, unbelievable. Changeup was really good. He only threw a handful of sliders because he didn’t really have to, because his changeup was so good. So many right-handed hitters in the lineup. I thought he was dominant.”

The Phillies threatened in the ninth when Kemp hit a two-out double. He was slow out of the batter’s box, thinking he had a home run, but it stayed in the park. According to Statcast, the hit would have been a homer in 13 other major league ballparks.

Kemp was held up at second, and then thrown out at home trying to score on a single from Stott to end the inning.

Sánchez, who has thrown two complete games in his career, had a pitch count of 91 after the eighth. Orion Kerkering took over for the final frame.

“I talked to him, and I think he was ready to come out,” Thomson said. “I think he was a little bit gassed, but if I’d asked him to go out, he would have.”

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The tying run reached first on an error by Bohm, and a two-out single put the winning run aboard as well. But a pop-out to third gave Kerkering his second career save. He had recorded his first on Monday.

“For us, in the last few years, it’s been difficult to win series down here,” Thomson said. “So I really feel good about what we did here, and now we got to move on. We got to face a really good club. And we’ve got our fan base in front of us, and it will be an exciting weekend.”