SAN DIEGO — Cristopher Sánchez reached back in the fourth inning Wednesday afternoon and fired a 2-0 fastball on the inner edge to a lefty hitter, who could not do anything with it, and that was history.
A smattering of Phillies fans behind the dugout rose to recognize Sánchez, who toppled a franchise record that had stood for 115 years with that groundout by Jackson Merrill.
With four scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres, Sánchez extended his streak to 41 2/3 innings. It surpassed Grover Cleveland Alexander’s 41-inning streak from 1911, which had been the franchise’s longest since at least 1893, when the current mound distance was set.
Once Sánchez’s outing was complete, having authored seven scoreless, the streak reached 44 2/3 innings. It is the seventh-longest scoreless streak in Major League Baseball since 1920.
This is a remarkable feat for anyone, let alone someone who has undergone a radical transformation from a fringe pitcher to one of the sport’s most dominant arms.
Sánchez lowered his ERA to 1.47.
Cristopher Sánchez extends his scoreless streak to 41.2 innings, passing Grover Cleveland Alexander’s 41 IP (1911) for a new @Phillies record! pic.twitter.com/8VcbfjonpJ
— MLB (@MLB) May 27, 2026
He pitched around traffic Wednesday in the first and second innings to keep the streak alive. The Phillies did him no favors with sloppy defensive work early. Manny Machado hit one to the warning track in the fourth inning. It stayed in the yard somehow. Sánchez stared in disbelief at Machado.
“Obviously,” Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly said pregame, “watching him work has been pretty special.”
Sánchez not only rewrote the Phillies’ record; he also established a new mark for lefty pitchers since MLB expanded in 1961. Clayton Kershaw — with Mattingly as his manager — tossed 41 consecutive scoreless innings in 2014.
The longest scoreless streak ever is Orel Hershiser’s 59 innings in 1988. Sánchez has now cracked the list of top 10 scoreless streaks in the live-ball era (since 1920). Carl Hubbell holds the modern record for a lefty with 45 1/3 scoreless innings with the New York Giants in 1933.
There is so much of this season still to play. Sánchez will face adversity at some point because it’s baseball; he cannot be this commanding for six months. He opened eyes with a breakout 2024, then backed it up with a transcendent 2025 season that resulted in a second-place finish in the NL Cy Young Award voting.
In 2026, the lanky 29-year-old from the Dominican Republic has asserted his place. The scoreless streak hasn’t proven anything. It just reaffirmed the work Sánchez has undertaken. He is one of the best starters in baseball, and he is on a historic run.
