Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez delivers two-hit complete game over the Nationals

Artificial crowd noise hissed through the ballpark speakers Saturday, as Ranger Suárez pitched four simulated innings, a precursor to returning from three weeks on the injured list with a sore lower back.

Nothing would be more central to another deep Phillies playoff run.

But a resurgence from fellow lefty Cristopher Sánchez ranks as a close second. So, four hours after Suárez left the mound, Sánchez climbed aboard and twirled a two-hit, 99-pitch complete game in a 5-1 romp over the Nationals.

Oh, and for Sánchez, the cheers at sold-out Citizens Bank Park were au naturel.

» READ MORE: No one is on a 100-win pace. What’s happened to the super teams, and whose struggles will pay off?

“As you can see, I haven’t had the greatest results after the All-Star break,” Sánchez said through a team interpreter. “So, my goal for today was to go out and compete and do the best that I could for the team.”

Indeed, Sánchez had a 6.63 ERA in his previous seven starts after posting a 2.41 mark through his first 16. Considering he has thrown more innings in the majors this season (140⅓) than ever before, it was fair to wonder if he was feeling like a sprinter trying to complete a marathon.

The Phillies’ pitching department, led by Caleb Cotham and Brian Kaplan, digs for clues about such things. With Sánchez, they noticed that his arm slot had dipped, a potential sign of fatigue. But he got back to normal this week in throwing sessions between starts and maintained his usual slot against the Nationals.

Save for a solo homer by Alex Call in the fourth inning, Sánchez dazzled, tossing his second complete game of the season and the fifth by a Phillies pitcher. Of the 25 complete games in the majors, only seven have been achieved in less than 100 pitches.

And Sánchez’s gem followed solid starts from Aaron Nola (6⅔ scoreless innings Friday) and Zack Wheeler (one run in six innings Thursday). The Phillies won all three games and four in a row overall.

Coincidence? Of course not.

» READ MORE: Keeping their starting pitchers healthy is key to a World Series run. Here’s how the Phillies plan to do it.

The Phillies held a team meeting before batting practice Wednesday amid an 8-18 slide. But there really wasn’t much to discuss. They had the best starters ' ERA in the majors when they were on a 106-win pace two weeks into July. During the 26-game malaise, in which Suárez made only two starts and Sánchez had a 6.11 ERA, they ranked 19th.

It’s simple: The Phillies will go as far as the starters carry them.

And Suárez and Sánchez can turn a solid rotation into a dominant one.

“Hopefully they’re over kind of a fatigue hump,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But we’ve got to keep them there. We’ve got to really monitor so we don’t put them in harm’s way, so we don’t get them overly fatigued again, so they can get through this month and September in good shape.”

Sánchez and Nationals lefty MacKenzie Gore were locked in a 1-1 duel through five innings. The Phillies broke it open in the sixth, scoring four runs on six hits, five of which were singles. Alec Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Edmundo Sosa, and Johan Rojas punched RBI singles in a pass-the-baton rally.

The Nationals were aggressive against Sánchez, who threw 50 pitches through five innings. Armed with bowling-ball sinkers and bat-slowing changeups, he pitched like he did through the first half of the season when he was named to the All-Star Game.

Six nights earlier, Sánchez gave up seven runs on 12 hits in 4⅔ innings in Arizona. He explained that the higher arm slot enabled him to have better command. In particular, Realmuto said Sánchez was better able to locate his sinker against right-handed hitters.

» READ MORE: How far can the Phillies ride their NLCS Game 7 heartbreak? Players who have been there know.

“When he can get his fastball in on righties, it makes it so much harder [for hitters] to be able to sit on the changeup and stay back on it,” Realmuto said. “He commanded the changeup great from the start. But his ability to throw the fastball in and command that on righties was, I think, the difference.”

Sánchez hummed along after Call’s homer, retiring 17 batters in a row. After he set down the Nationals on nine pitches in the eighth inning, his pitch count stood at 86 with the Phillies holding a four-run lead.

“I told him after the eighth, I said, ‘If we score any more runs, you’re done,’” Thomson said. “And I wouldn’t let him go over 100 pitches.”

When Call reached on a throwing error by shortstop Trea Turner with two out in the ninth inning, Sánchez was at 98 pitches. He reached back for a 94 mph sinker and got C.J. Abrams to fly out.

Cue the cheers. The real ones.

“Thank you to the pitching coaches who saw it early and told me, ‘Hey, you’re lowering your arm a little bit. Let’s work on getting it back where it needs to be,’” Sánchez said. “And thanks that we had the results we had today.

“I’m the type of person who’s not going to settle for the results that I get. I’m always trying to improve. I’m going to go out every single day to compete and give my best version.”