Sanchez Dominates, Philly Erupts in 10th to Down Angels 4-2
Cristopher Sanchez threw 7.0 innings of two-hit, zero-run ball with 8 strikeouts, and Philadelphia still needed extra innings to put this one away. When the Phillies finally broke through in the 10th, they did it in a hurry — three runs on three hits to seal a 4-2 win over the Angels.
The story of the night was Sanchez, and it isn't particularly close. Two hits, zero earned runs, one walk, eight punchouts across seven innings — that's a performance that deserves a win in regulation. Philadelphia got on the board early when Brandon Marsh singled to center in the second, scoring Alec Bohm to make it 1-0. That lead held all the way into the eighth, when Zach Neto changed the entire complexion of the game with one swing. His solo shot to left center — 407 feet — tied it at one and swung the home win probability from 21% to 54%, a 33-point shift. One pitch, one moment, and suddenly the Angels had all the life in the building.
But Jhoan Duran came on and slammed the door. Two innings, one hit, zero earned runs — the kind of relief appearance that quietly saves games. The Angels couldn't push anything else across against him, and that kept Philadelphia alive long enough for the 10th inning to do its work. Kyle Schwarber doubled to left to score Realmuto and move Crawford to third. Then Trea Turner singled to right, scoring both Crawford and Stubbs to blow it open at 4-1. Turner finished 2-for-4 with 2 RBI — the most impactful bat in the lineup when it mattered most. The Angels got one back when a fielder's choice scored Guzman, but the final was 4-2 and it wasn't really that close by the end.
On the LAA side, Ryan Johnson's night looks like the difference-maker in a parallel universe that never happened. He allowed just 2 hits in 5.0 innings, but walked five batters — that kind of control problem tends to catch up with you, and it did when Trevor Martin came on and surrendered 4 hits and 2 earned runs across 3.0 innings in the 10th. The Angels had the momentum after Neto's homer, and they couldn't convert it into anything sustainable. Neto went 1-for-5 with the home run as the lone bright spot in an offense that managed just 2 runs total. Philadelphia's pitching — Sanchez and Duran combining for 9.0 innings, 3 hits, and zero earned runs — appears to have been simply too much to overcome.