Sports

Phillies' Cristopher Sanchez Makes MLB History With Scoreless Streak

By Joe Najarian Athlon Sports

Philadelphia Phillies ace Cristopher Sanchez finally saw his scoreless innings streak come to an end, but not before making even more history.

Facing the San Diego Padres, the southpaw went seven innings and extended his streak by putting up zeroes over the first six. He retired the first two batters of the seventh inning but then allowed a double to Ty France and an RBI single to Jackson Merrill, officially ending the streak.

But when all was said and done, Sanchez's streak reached 50.2 scoreless innings, becoming just the fifth pitcher in modern MLB history to toss at least 50 consecutive scoreless frames. The other four are Jack Coombs in 1910 (53 IP), Walter Johnson in 1913 (55.2 IP), Don Drysdale in 1968 (58 IP), and Orel Hershiser, who currently holds the MLB record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988. Both Johnson and Drysdale are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, while Hershiser won the Cy Young Award in the year of his streak.

Along the way, Sanchez surpassed Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander for the longest scoreless innings streak in Phillies history during his start in San Diego on May 27. Alexander set the record with 41 straight scoreless frames in 1911, 115 years ago. Sanchez also broke a record held by another Hall of Famer, Giants lefty Carl Hubbell, who held the mark for scoreless innings by a left-handed pitcher with 45.1 in 1933. The Phillies southpaw surpassed Hubbell with a scoreless first inning on Wednesday.

Sanchez, who went the entire month of May without allowing a run, was named NL Pitcher of the Month hours before taking the mound tonight. The most important part of his dominance, though, is that the Phillies win when he toes the slab.

Outside of a 1-0 loss to the Cleveland Guardians on May 22, Philadelphia won all seven games that encapsulated the scoreless inning streak, including Wednesday. Although the run Sanchez allowed in the seventh tied the game at one, the Phillies took the lead for good with home runs by J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber in the bottom half of the frame. Sanchez ultimately got the win in the Phillies' 3-2 victory.

The Phillies are now 32-29 on the season, and have gone 23-10 since interim manager Don Mattingly took over for the fired Rob Thomson on April 28. Philadelphia will look to complete a three-game sweep of San Diego on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park, with Zack Wheeler taking the hill. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 PM ET.

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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 6:16 PM.

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