PHILADELPHIA — Cristopher Sánchez became the first 15-game winner in the majors this season, Bryson Stott collected two of Philadelphia’s season-high eight doubles and the Phillies beat the Washington Nationals 7-3 on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies never trailed. Trea Turner and Bryce Harper opened the bottom of the first with hits before Luis Arraez and Alec Bohm dropped back-to-back RBI doubles for a 2-0 lead. Washington answered on Jacob Young’s run-scoring single in the second, but J.T. Realmuto doubled and came home on Justin Crawford’s single in the bottom half — the pattern for the night. Philadelphia added three more in the third on doubles by Harper, Brandon Marsh and Stott, and by the end of that inning seven different Phillies had doubled. The lead was 6-1.
Miles Mikolas (3-9) wore it. The right-hander lasted five innings and gave up six runs on 12 hits, one night after he squeezed home a run as an 11th-inning pinch hitter in Washington’s 10-4 victory. Sánchez (15-4) was not especially sharp either — six hits, two walks and 98 pitches to get through five — but he struck out six and stranded traffic all night, escaping a two-on jam in the fifth after a mound visit from pitching coach Caleb Cotham.
Washington’s night produced one lasting moment. Left fielder Andrew Pinckney turned on a Sánchez pitch in the fourth and drove it the opposite way for a home run, the first major-league hit of his career. Keibert Ruiz added an RBI single off Orion Kerkering in the sixth to pull the Nationals within 6-3, but Stott opened the bottom half with his second double and scored on Kyle Schwarber’s single. José Alvarado, Jonathan Bowlan and Jhoan Duran then retired the final nine Washington hitters in order. The Nationals finished with eight hits and no errors; the Phillies piled up 16 hits before a crowd of 40,301.
The loss dropped Washington to 56-61 and gave Philadelphia (62-54) three of four in the series. The Nationals return home to open a series against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night at Nationals Park, with right-hander Cade Cavalli (8-5, 3.52 ERA) scheduled to start.
Box score via Baseball-Reference; game details via The Associated Press and Philadelphia Baseball Review.