Sanchez’s pitching, ruling lift Braves
Another strong effort from Anibal Sanchez has the first-place Atlanta Braves facing a sudden surplus of starting pitchers.
Sanchez allowed only four hits in seven scoreless innings, Ender Inciarte homered and scored two runs and the Braves, helped by a strange replay ruling, beat the visiting San Diego Padres 4-2 on Thursday night.
The Braves (40-28) moved 12 games over .500 for the first time since ending the 2013 season on top of the NL East. They haven’t been back to the playoffs since 2013, but now they’re again leading the division.
Sanchez has won two straight starts. With the emergence of rookie Mike Soroka and the expected return of Julio Teheran from the DL this weekend, Braves manager Brian Snitker could soon face difficult decisions in his rotation.
“We’ve got a good problem because we’ve got more starters than we can probably use right now,” Snitker said. “That’s something that not a lot of teams can say. So it’s going to be some tough decisions going forward.”
The Padres were upset a video review affirmed the ruling from home plate umpire Mark Ripperger that the Braves’ Tyler Flowers was hit by a pitch from Tyson Ross in the seventh. The review lasted 2 minutes, 39 seconds.
Flowers said he told Ripperger he didn’t think he was hit by the pitch.
“The more I thought about it sitting there, and then seeing the replay, I know it hit something,” Flowers said. “It might have been me. I don’t know. I wear so many guards and stuff, it might have been one of those.”
TV replays seemed to show the ball didn’t hit Flowers or his bat.
San Diego manager Andy Green said the call changed the game because Flowers scored on Inciarte’s groundout against Robbie Erlin.
Phillies 9, Rockies 3: Vince Velasquez took a no-hitter two outs into the seventh inning, Rhys Hoskins and Nick Williams hit solo homers and host Philadelphia beat Colorado. Trevor Story lined Velasquez’s 105th pitch to left for an RBI double, ending Velasquez’s bid for the fourth no-hitter in the majors this season. Velasquez (5-7) retired 20 of the first 21 batters and got a standing ovation as he walked off the mound after the hit.
Tigers 3, Twins 1: JaCoby Jones’ two-run homer capped a three-run seventh inning as Detroit rallied past visiting Minnesota. Jones was hitting .135 in his past 10 games and had struck out in his first two at-bats before hitting Lance Lynn’s 3-1 fastball for his fifth home run.
Indians 5, White Sox 2: Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez homered, Mike Clevinger struck out 11 in seven innings and Cleveland topped host Chicago.
Yankees 4, Rays 3: Gleyber Torres hit another three-run homer and Domingo German struck out a career-high 10 for his first major-league win as New York edged visiting Tampa Bay in the opener of a four-game series.
Diamondbacks 6, Mets 3: David Peralta hit a pair of solo homers, Matt Koch pitched six effective innings in a combined four-hitter and host Arizona beat New York.
Red Sox 2, Mariners 1: Xander Bogaerts hit a tiebreaking home run in the sixth inning and David Price allowed five hits over seven innings as Boston beat host Seattle.