PHILADELPHIA - Cristopher Sanchez will be called up to the Phillies, taking Ranger Suarez’s spot in the rotation on Tuesday against the Washington Nationals.
Suarez was placed on the injured list Sunday with a low back spasm, and Sanchez was scratched from his scheduled start for the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Sunday. Sanchez last pitched on Tuesday.
Sanchez is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA for Lehigh Valley in seven games, including six starts. He has pitched eight games for the Phillies this season, including one start, and has a 4.60 ERA.
While bouncing back and forth between the Phillies and the IronPigs this season, Sanchez hasn’t been fully stretched out. He pitched just three innings in his last start and his high-water mark is four innings, meaning there will be some stress put on a Phillies’ bullpen that has been excellent of late but has also been extended.
The bullpen pitched 10 innings on Friday and Saturday as Bailey Falter - who is replacing an injured Zach Eflin - and Kyle Gibson only pitched four innings each. Zack Wheeler saved the bullpen with seven shutout innings on Sunday.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Sanchez’s back spasms just cropped up on Sunday.
“We want to be careful and cautious,” said Thomson. “It just flared up today. We weren’t really sure he could make that start on Tuesday, so we wanted to nip that now and make sure he’s OK.”
The Phillies are now down 40 percent of their starting rotation in the last week as Eflin went on the disabled list with a knee bruise on Tuesday. There are two weeks before an All-Star break that looms as a welcome couple days off to allow some players time to recover.
The Phillies are trying to stay in the National League playoff race and are currently 1 1/2 games out of a wild-card spot and 7 1/2 games behind the New York Mets in the National League East.
Bill Evans can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
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