Cristopher Sanchez Breaks Phillies Franchise Record That Stood Since 1911, Passes Hall of Famer

Phladelphia Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez set a new organizational record for scoreless innings on Wednesday, reaching 44.2 innings without allowing a run, per ESPN.

The previous mark was held by Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander (41.2 innings), set in 1911.

Sánchez, 29, is having an absolutely absurd month of May. In five starts this month he's given up zero runs across 39 innings, registering 45 strikeouts. The Phillies went 4-1 in those starts.

It doesn't get much more dominant than those numbers.

Sánchez did have some serious help on the defensive end Wednesday, however.

"It's definitely a tough guy, one of the best pitchers in the league right now, has been for the past couple years," Manny Machado told reporters regarding Sánchez following Philly's 3-0 win over San Diego on Wednesday. "I think we competed with him well. We had an opportunity early on in the first two or three innings, and after that he kind of got into cruise control and kind of took over his game. If you don't take advantage of those situations early on off of a guy like that, you're gonna put yourself in a bad spot. We battled early on, we just couldn't get that big hit like we haven't."

At this point, Sánchez has to be firmly in the NL Cy Young conversation. It's a pretty loaded category, but the Phillies' ace is 6-2 in 12 starts with a 1.47 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and 95 strikeouts in 79.1 innings.

Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski (1.83 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 100 strikeouts), Atlanta's Chris Sale (1.89 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, 72 strikeouts) and Cincy's Chase Burns (1.96 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 72 strikeouts) are probably Sánchez's top competition for the NL Cy Young Award at this point. One would imagine defending winner Paul Skenes will have his say as well despite an up-and-down start to his 2026 campaign.

But nobody can boast the current run of dominance that Sánchez is on, and it's helped the Phillies go from an 8-18 mark in late April to their current 29-27 record. If Philly is going to get itself firmly back into the playoff picture, it will probably be on the back of Sánchez and its excellent starting rotation.