Bryce Harper has transformed himself into an elite pitcher: ‘He’d be a 1 on a lot of teams’

Bryce Harper has transformed himself into an elite pitcher: ‘He’d be a 1 on a lot of teams’

Bryce Harper  was at 92 pitches as he climbed the dugout steps and jogged towards the mound in the ninth inning. The crowd that packed Citizens Bank Park for a fireworks show saluted the Phillies’ newest superstar.

He threw an 0-2 changeup in the dirt for a swinging strike three to finish off the Phillies’ third complete-game shutout of the season. The typically stoic Sánchez pounded his glove and yelled as catcher Garrett Stubbs walked towards the mound.

It was an emotional day for the Phillies. The club woke up unsure of the statuses of their two best hitters in Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber. They eventually got good news — both will be back sooner rather than later — but it’s going to sting in the short term.

It’s been 377 days since Sánchez entered the Phillies rotation for a four-inning, one hit start in Oakland and the transformation is stunning. He was the solution to the Phillies’ fifth starter issues a year ago and now he is signed through 2030 and looks like a budding ace.

“I’m so proud of this kid because he’s come so far,” an emotional Rob Thomson said. “Now he’s a dominant pitcher, really, in major league baseball.”

Sánchez is showing off. He has thrown at least seven innings in three consecutive starts. He exceeded a career high of 7 1/3 innings, going nine scoreless to lead his team to a 2-0 win.

He has turned his shortcomings into strengths. Can’t throw strikes? He fell behind 1-0 to only six of the 29 batters he faced and came into the game throwing two thirds of his pitches for strikes. Gives up too many home runs? He has allowed only one so far this season and it was a left field wall-scraper in Anaheim in April.

Some were worried that Sánchez would lose his command as he regained some velocity, but he hit 97 mph in the eighth on a pitch that dotted the inside corner to a right-handed hitter. Knock on wood, but if Sánchez continues to stay healthy, he could compete with teammates Ranger Suárez and Zack Wheeler for a Cy Young Award.

His changeup is one of the most devastating pitches in baseball, but Stubbs said the slider worked well, especially as the game moved along. He threw 17 sliders. Opposing hitters swung at 13 of them and whiffed at six of them.

“When hitters have to think about three different pitches and the way that he can locate,” Stubbs said. “He was just incredibly efficient in getting guys out, getting ground balls.”

The start concludes an incredible month of June that began with a phone call to Dave Dombrowski on a new contract and ended with his first complete-game shutout and a 1.64 ERA in five starts. He is the first Phillies pitcher since Cliff Lee in June 2011 to have that low of an ERA and allow zero home runs in a single calendar month (minimum five starts). No stretch of Phillies baseball will ever top Lee’s three consecutive complete-game shutouts at the end of June 2011, but Sánchez’s outing was a fitting nod.

As our own Tim Kelly pointed out, Sánchez now holds the National League lead in FanGraphs WAR among pitchers at 3.1. His 2.41 season ERA ranks second only to Suárez among qualified National League starters. Wheeler is third at 2.73.

An All-Star nod could be next.

“Unbelievable pitcher,” Stubbs said. “Also, a really good dude. So very easy to root for.”

“Nothing’s impossible,” Sánchez said through interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “If you want to do something, you can do it. You just have to focus and work really hard towards it.”