The starting pitchers for Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game in Philadelphia have been announced — and the hometown crowd will get to cheer on one of their own. Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez has been chosen to start for the National League, while Dylan Cease of the Toronto Blue Jays will take the ball for the American League.
Sanchez, 29, is no stranger to the All-Star stage — this marks his second appearance in the game. He enters with an impressive 11-4 record and a 2.62 ERA over 20 starts this season. Among all major league pitchers, only Milwaukee Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby, who has 12 wins, has more victories than Sanchez.
When All-Star rosters were revealed on July 4, Sanchez held the second-best ERA in all of baseball at 2.00. However, he ran into trouble two days later, surrendering nine runs in just 3 1/3 innings.
Earlier this season, Sanchez put together one of the most remarkable stretches in recent memory. From April 30 through June 3, he threw 50 2/3 consecutive innings without giving up a single earned run — breaking the all-time major league record for the longest such streak by a left-handed pitcher and ranking fifth in history overall.
While Citizens Bank Park is generally known as a hitter-friendly ballpark, Sanchez has been virtually untouchable there. In his 11 home starts, he carries a 7-1 record with a microscopic 0.86 ERA, allowing just two home runs across 73 innings. On the road, the numbers look quite different — a 4-3 record and a 4.97 ERA with 10 homers allowed in 54 1/3 innings over nine outings.
Cease, 30, will be making his All-Star Game debut. The right-hander holds a 6-4 record and a 2.56 ERA through 17 starts. He leads the entire American League with 148 strikeouts, and his rate of 13.5 punchouts per nine innings ties Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski for the top spot in all of baseball.
Cease’s most recent outing came Wednesday in San Francisco, where he nearly made history. He carried a no-hitter all the way into the ninth inning before Heliot Ramos broke it up with a leadoff single on Cease’s 118th and final pitch of the game.
