Cristopher Sanchez worked six effective innings to become the majors’ first 16-game winner as the Philadelphia Phillies nipped the visiting Miami Marlins 6-5 on Monday.
Sanchez (16-4) allowed one run while working around eight hits and three walks. He struck out six before the Phillies’ bullpen held on to clinch the team’s fourth straight victory.
Bryce Harper had three hits for Philadelphia, while Derek Hill knocked in a pair of runs.
Six players recorded two hits for Miami, including Javier Sanoja (two RBIs) and Xavier Edwards (two runs scored). Brian Navarreto hit the game’s only home run, while Marlins starter Janson Junk (6-8) gave up two runs and eight hits in five innings.
Neither team scored until the Phillies plated two runs against Junk in the third inning. Justin Crawford led off with a double and scored on Trea Turner’s one-out single. Junk walked Harper to move Turner into scoring position, and Luis Arraez followed with a base hit to make it 2-0.
After allowing multiple baserunners in the second and third innings, Sanchez let the first two batters reach base in the fourth. However, the All-Star left-hander rebounded to retire the next three hitters.
The fifth inning followed a similar script, with Navarreto and Esteury Ruiz reaching against Sanchez to open the frame. The next hitter, Heriberto Hernandez, nearly hit into a 5-4-3 triple play but barely beat the throw from second. Still, Sanchez promptly got Edwards to ground out to end the inning.
Miami finally dented the scoreboard against Sanchez in the sixth, but Philadelphia plated two runs in the bottom half. Hill’s pinch-hit RBI single was the only hit of the inning, though Kyle Schwarber added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1.
Sanoja’s two-run double in the seventh brought the visitors to within 4-3, and Navarreto’s solo homer off Orion Kerkering in the eighth pulled Miami to within 5-4.
Alec Bohm provided an insurance run with an RBI single in the home half of the eighth — and Jhoan Duran benefited from the extra cushion in the ninth. Otto Lopez’s RBI single made it a 6-5 game before the Philadelphia closer retired Sanoja and Leo Jimenez to end it.
