MLB

Phillies 4, Diamondbacks 1

Philadelphia wisely locked the emerging Cristopher Sanchez up with a four-year deal on Friday, and the 27-year-old rewarded the Phillies yesterday. Sanchez is more or less the No. 4 starter in a stacked Phillies rotation, but he’s pitched like a typical No. 2 at worst through 15 starts. In this game, the left-hander gave Philadelphia seven scoreless innings to earn his fifth victory.

Despite a sophomore slump, reigning NL Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll has still been halfway useful to the Diamondbacks because he’s such a toolsy player, but it’s evident that Arizona wants more out of him. Carroll has been out of the Diamondbacks’ lineup in two of the past four games, and he has just one hit over the club’s last seven contests.

Braves 3, Yankees 1

Over the course of Atlanta’s recent hot streak (eight wins in 10 games), pitching has mostly carried the day. Without Ronald Acuna, it’ll probably need to stay that way for the Braves to accomplish their season goals. It’s impossible to patch together the perfect sequence of pitchers every game, but Brian Snitker would surely love if he could get six innings of Max Fried and one inning each of Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez and Raisel Iglesias each time out.

52-28 is likely right where the Yankees hoped to be through 80 games, but there’s still some more meat on the bone for New York. Gleyber Torres and DJ LeMahieu have both struggled, and the Yankees’ booming offense will only improve if each infielder finds their stroke at the plate. Torres and LeMahieu combined to go 0-for-7 yesterday.

Rays 3, Pirates 1

Pittsburgh is already getting good at wasting gems from Paul Skenes. The arguably generational rookie has now made eight starts for the Pirates, and while he’s yet to be credited with a loss, Skenes has just four wins, mostly due to a lack of run support. No matter what, the Pirates will continue to be a bear each time Skenes is trotted out, but unfortunately for Pittsburgh, each start also takes a tick off the countdown for the right-hander joining a big-market team. Sorry, Pirates fans.