High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Sanchez Dominates, Harper Hits 2 HRs In Latest Win

Episode Date: May 6, 2026

Cristopher Sanchez tossed 8 shutout innings on Tuesday night as Bryce Harper led the offense with 2 home runs in the Phillies 9-1 win over the Athletics. Jack Fritz reacts to all the good vibes going down at CBP. Presented by Miller Lite. To purchase Ring The Bell by Jack Fritz and Kevin Reavy go to RingTheBellBook.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetmGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Ah, certainly feels like the season's back on. Welcome on in. It is the final out. Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday night. reacting to a Philly's 9-1 win. Really, it was a 9-0-0-1 win, but technically a 9-1 win. The final out is always brought to you by the Philadelphia Parking Authority.

So listen, Don Maddenly takes over. He tells the boys, hey, the starting staff, you're going to turn into a great starting staff again. And offense, you're going to start doing just enough. Also, we're going to be more crisp defensively. Just genius. Just genius. All right.

The game wrap up is sponsored by Roto Router. When plumbing problems hit, wrap them up quick and call Roto Router. Their team tackles clogs and leaks. So you can stay in the game. Roto Router, your MVP for plumbing solutions. It was a good crowd tonight, 37,000 on a Tuesday night against the A's. So, you know, you kind of expect something like that. Beautiful day for baseball.

and if you're stuck in traffic on your way home, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you watch this one at your house like I did, we'd love to hear from you as well at 215-592-94-94. My biggest takeaways of the game are brought to you by Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. And this is who the Phillies are when they start to feel comfortable and they start to settle into the season.

And maybe, you know, Bryce in the quote last night about kind of feeling the Thompson thing was hanging over their heads. Was he going to be here? Was he not going to be here? You know, playing tight, things like that. And since they did make the move and they went to Mattingly, you know, it feels like there's been a different level of just, okay, this is what it is. Now we got to climb our way out of this thing. And, you know, it certainly feels right now that this is. This is how they were designed.

This is how most of last year was, where, you know, starting pitcher that night goes out, does his job. Now, the offense doesn't score nine runs every single night. If they did, we'd be feeling much better about the future of the baseball team. But, you know, offense does just enough. And the bullpen's solid. Now, tonight was not a huge sample size for the bullpen. But the overall feel I have in watching this team, you know, since Mad and I'm,

took over to the 7 and 1 under mattingly and really the last couple of games is they are settling into the season they're getting into the rhythm of the season they know they are a good team they are stabilizing here a little bit and and this is what they can do and how they can start rattling off series wins they don't need to they haven't been a team they'll rip off 10 straight they've been a team that'll rip off like seven straight series wins, but they'll mix in some annoying loss in there because the offense isn't as good as we wish. It's usually on a Sunday so you can not be super, super thrilled with how the series goes. But you just kind of have this feel of like a deep breath, a relaxing with this team.

They know they have work to do. I mean, all of a sudden they're not only four games under 500. There's still nine back of the Braves heading. to the night. They continue to take care of business. They're a really good team. And the East might be over. But that doesn't mean that you're not going to make the playoffs. There's three wildcard teams now.

And, you know, like, there's plenty of time left for this team to go on a run. So the biggest thing I felt tonight was just them settling in and now we go. I don't think they're going to rip off eight straight,

nine straight, ten straight. It would be great. It would get them right back in the mix with everything. but I think that they can now start playing their style of Phillies baseball, which is, yeah, they're going to have to rely on the long ball. They're not going to string together a bunch of base hits. But the pitching staff is going to be brilliant. Murph had a great stats. It started 1.53 ERA in their last eight games.

A staff as a whole 2.38 ERA. So the entire pitching staff is starting to do their thing. offense, just enough. Explode late, that was good. You know, Miami, they did nothing off the Marlins relievers. Tonight they took advantage of poor old Mark Lighter Jr. Does anyone remember him being a Philly? I do, but like it was not a household name of him.

They smoked Tyler Ferguson. He smoked Tyler Ferguson. 215-592-94-94 to get in on this one. Speaking of settling in, I don't want to get too ahead of myself with the offense. I really don't because they frustrate me as much as they frustrate you. But, you know, Harper has a huge night tonight. He's looked really good. Last two games, specifically, he's been ripping the cover off the baseball.

That's good. You know, it's good to see Trey get a double. You know, Schwerber's clearly working his way through things. But, like, I don't really care about the top three. We know they have to be good. I think for the most part, they're going to be good. Trey, you know, I don't know. Schwerber and Harper are going to be fine.

It's everyone after that that you have your questions about. I think Adolese continues to look good. Marsh is just a good player. Against lefties, we'll see. But certainly against righties, I mean, his average is like 325 now. He's three hits tonight. He's great.

I mean, he is a really, really, really solid ball player. Crawford's fine at the bottom of the lineup. J.T. had a nice hit tonight, but we know he's here. it's mostly for his defense and leadership. And Stott launched a home run. All of a sudden, has three home runs on the year,

finally getting rewarded for hitting the ball harder this year. That is good to see, looking for more slug. And he has been working higher quality at bats. So maybe some signs of life from Stott as well. I mean, Bome is just such a cog in this thing where, again, Crawford, you feel good about. Stott starting to maybe

climb out of this thing. J.T. There's no worse scenario in Philly's history than JT up with the base is loaded. But besides that, good enough for what you're expecting from him.

Marsh is a damn solid player. Dolies is fine. You're still waiting for more pop to come from him. But he's at least starting to hit the ball hard again. So maybe, maybe just, just maybe this offense settling in just a little bit.

They're never going to be, you know, a true top five offense in baseball. But they have to be there. They have to be contributed. They can't be holding them back. And for a good portion of tonight, they kind of were. They were missing opportunities early in the game, and that was frustrating. But they were able to piece together late and add some plenty of insurance runs and end up making this one a laffer.

And then my nightly obsession with Donnie baseball and the little, things. In one inning tonight, the Phillies sent two runners in hit and run situations, and they got base hits, caused Harper to go to first base, allowed Marsh to score from first base on the JT double. So little things, Donnie baseball, putting runners in motion, putting a little pressure on the defense. We love it. We love to see it. They got a sack fly done tonight. Should not be too excited about sack fly, but given the lack of situational baseball, his team usually plays, it was exciting to see them just get a good old-fashioned sack fly.

So a beautiful night down at the ballpark, both weather-wise and baseball-wise. Sanchez, brilliant. Offense explodes late. Harper has a big night. Stock goes yard. The run might be coming. The run might be coming. Bill is in East Hampton.

What's happening, Bill? Hey, what's going on, my friend? How you doing? Good. I'll say the takeaway from this game to me is all the intangibles. I've got to say, the Stott blast was huge. I don't think everybody counts on that every time. Garcia at the wall with the catch at the track at the wall.

When they brought him on board, I said, all right, they signed a Cuban slugger. They got a bat. That's good. I didn't know what he was going to do. He's a good outfielder. I think that's a pleasant surprise that we didn't know what's going to happen. Yeah, I mean, he's compared to who we had here last time.

He is certainly a massive, massive upgrade. And so refreshing having an outfielder that just has a hose attached to the right side of his body. I mean, watching him throw to bases is an absolute, treat. So, I mean, hey, he had won a gold glove in the past. He had a down year defensively in 24, rebounded last year, but yeah, he is a breath of fresh air out in right field.

He absolutely is. I'm very surprised by his defensive flight, and I'm happy with that. I love what Marsh is doing. I think I think Marsh's whole thing is he needs to be in the lineup. Like, he

March's situation is he can't feel that if he goes 0 for 3 or 0 for 4, that he's not in the lineup the next day. And I think he doesn't feel that anymore. Like, he knows he's in the lineup. So I think he's more comfortable, and he's doing well with that. Yeah, I mean, he looks free and easy right now.

He looks like he's going up there and just playing. I know that sounds simple, but some guys just get so in their head that they psyched themselves out of it. And he looks like the exact opposite right now. He's just going up there, seeing the, it's almost like C-ball, hit ball. and he is smoking the baseball currently. Still the second highest Babbap in baseball history behind Ty Cobb, which is crazy.

When he puts the ball on play, good things usually happen. All right, on the other side, we'll get to the player of the game, and something you should not freak out over tonight. We'll get to that coming up next in addition to your phone calls here on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. Hey, Ontario, come on down to bedmGM casino.

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Deep Waters is a new UFC podcast from CBS Sports. Every Monday, myself, Dean Thomas, alongside with legends of the sport, Chris Widman, Jorge Masvedal, and Dustin Porrier, bring you inside the octagon like no one else can. Deep Waters, new episodes every Monday, watch on YouTube or listen on Apple, Spotify, and everywhere else you get podcast. Yeah, I think Sanchez's back after a slowish start of the season for his standards. A lot of base hits. A couple stinkers.

The one giant start out in San Fran, bit of a stinker and the Cubs start, definitely a stanker. But early in the season, it didn't feel right. Like some of the numbers were good. I think heading into the Cubs start, he was second in the National League in ERA. But it didn't feel like the Chris Sanchez that we had seen. over the last couple years when he gets rolling, well, the guy we saw it tonight and the guy we saw his last start, that's Chris Sanchez. I mean, that is, that is our guy. That is, that is our, you know, a really, really superstar level pitcher in Chris Sanchez, the guy that finished

second in Sy Young last year. And he is my player of the game, which is brought to you by South Jersey Gas. Make the smart play, save energy and money at South Jersey Gas at SJG. Saveenergy.com. This is the final out, which is brought to you by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. So Sanchez tonight, he struck out 10. He was on a roll. I mean, he was at like 50 pitches through five innings. He had a couple of easy innings, you know, a nine pitch inning, a couple six pitch

innings. So he was great. And I think the biggest thing that has changed for him, you know, he adjusted his slider grip this offseason. And early in season, I felt like he was throwing it a lot. And I think it might have caused for him to lose feel for his changeup. And I thought early this season he really hunted more with it to get strikeouts rather than what it's been, which is just a show me pitch, or something he can flip into one or a tendency breaker where he's so the hitters show used to him being fastball change up in a certain scenario.

He flips that one over just to throw them off the scent a little bit. And, you know, tonight it was down to 15% sliders, which is down from 20% sliders on the season. It seems like it's getting back to where it was last year, where he has to accept it. He's a fastball change-up guy. And those two pitches are so nasty because they look the exact same, really until you get to home plate. You don't really need a great third pitch. I appreciate the effort. The idea was, hey, I want to have a great third pitch.

I want to have a great slider. But not at the expense of those pitches. And the command was right back to being pinpoint. Maybe it caused some command issues as well, going to that new change-up. But that's what I see. I see them effectively ditching the slider, just recommitting to him being a fastball change-up pitcher, getting that command back,

and you're seeing the results. He doesn't need a nasty third pitch. Those two pitches are impossible to hit off of each other. So, yeah, he was great. Last two outings have been great. And all of a sudden, you get Wheeler back, Sanchez pitching like this, Lazardo pitching like this, Nola what he did last night, which was huge painter.

I just think he's going to be a work in progress this entire year. But at least at the first four, Nola, we still got to see more. but there's a lot of signs of life from the starting rotation. Again, 1.53 ERA in their last eight games. Murph said that on the postgame show. So really, really good stuff from them and great stuff from Christopher Sanchez tonight. Dave's in Maryland. What's happening?

Dave. Hey, what's up, Jack? First and foremost, congrats on number three coming. That's very good news for you. Yeah, that's the boy. Yep, and number three had a great game tonight with two home runs. and just he's locked in, which you can just tell on the, even his foul balls that he's sitting, he's just, when he misses one, he's upset because he knows this is a time where he's going to take off,

which is really good for the offense. And, you know, it's a classic recipe, which you thought this team was going to be is starting pitching and, you know, let the offense kind of, you know, hopefully wake up one or two innings. And, you know, that was a great win tonight. and hopefully they can keep it rolling tomorrow night with Wheeler. The other thing that, you know, Sanchez does and the starting pitch who does is it just,

it allows the bullpen to reset. I know Durran had a, you know, rusty night night tonight, but it just allows, like, a night off for Keller, a night off for other guys that, you know, that'll make them more effective than they've been, because they were pitching a lot of innings in April. So, you know, hopefully we get a second one tomorrow

and go from there. You got to stack these series wins, Dave. You got to stack these series wins. Appreciate the phone call. Yeah, reset in the bullpen is huge. I was a little surprised that Madding Lee had Sanchez go back out there for the eighth, only because I thought that was a highly emotional seventh inning. The one thing I don't love that managers do is that when a pitcher has a highly emotional out,

it's the fist pump rule, where if you see a pitcher let out of a fist pump, usually yanking from the game because the adrenaline is high and when they sit down, it's hard to get the adrenaline back up. But I think once they made it 6-0, you could feel comfortable extending it another inning. I believe he was only at 85 pitches heading into the 8th. So that's an appropriate time to extend it. I think Matt and Lee's been way more proactive in getting guys out of there. And hey, maybe he felt comfortable letting him go.

go an extra inning because he pulled him with 88 pitches his last timeout. So who knows. Dave did mention Duran there. That's what I was going to bring up on the idea of something not to freak out over. I mean, that's the first time back on a big league mound in a little while, had been off to not do a rehab assignment. He was rusty. 100% rusty.

It's also a super low leverage spot. It's hard to get the juices flowing quite like it is in a save opportunity. But overall, not concerned about Joanne Duran. That is a vintage, high-leverage reliever and a low-leverage spot coming off an injury to where we don't need to make a mountain out of a mole hill, as they say. On the other side, we'll get to the wow moment of the game and a look ahead tomorrow. All that's coming up next here on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIPA. At Desjardin Insurance, we know that when you own a nail salon, everything needs to be perfect from tip to toe. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business.

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and their paycheck by enrolling in free. Free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology. Learn more at aboutamazon.ca. Yeah, there was a little bit of a doubt there with Gelloff going back. And I thought I saw a little bit of whiteness level. I was like, no, did he catch that? But he did not. My fantasy team, very, very happy with Bryce going yard tonight twice.

Those are my wow moment of the game brought to you by. the New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism, from waterways to fairways, mountain resorts to Lighthouse Tours. Find your wow at VisitNJ.com. Bryce Harper goes yard tonight, walks, has another base hit in there. He is on fire right now.

You know, the best little stretch he's had in a long while, you know, the best I ever thought he looked in the Phillies uniform. I mean, his run at the end of 21 to win the MVP was phenomenal. But he was ridiculous in 24 before he got hurt. I think it was running to first base. He pulled his hamstring a little bit. He was great then. But Bryce saw a sudden hitting 286 with a 948 OPS, nine home runs on the year.

League leaders only at 14. So he is looking the part for all the elite, not elite. I don't really care. the guy's a damn good baseball player. And he is certainly not looking like he is done either, which is great. So, you know, there was that fear heading into the season. Obviously, there's always the worry of him getting a little banged up. He's had little injuries for the last couple of years.

But good to see that he still has pretty close to the peak of his powers. And all of a sudden, being at 286 and almost a 950 OPS and rising, Really, really encouraging. The final out is always brought to you by the Philadelphia Parking Authority. As always, Jackford's hanging out with you. Let's check in with Joel and Doyle's town. What's happening, Joel? Jack, it's great to chat with you, man.

Appreciate it, man. It was so nice to see Mark Leiter Jr. get touched up tonight, really open up the game because as a youngster, I remember when Mark Leiter Sr. It was the Phillies closer. It was at circa 19. 98 and I became a Phil's fan in

97 but as a family in upstate New Jersey I recall going to a game in 98 as a little nine year old and seeing Tino Martinez at a game time three run homer against Mark lighter

when we were terrible and smoking the Yankees and so that was just a brutal core memory and just really I just introduced me a Philly fandom, but obviously never wavered, and now here we are. So nice to see it go full circle in a way. Yes. Well, Mark Leonard Jr. also of Phillies fan. He was on our team for a while. I can't believe he's still around. I mean, he throws like 91, and he's been in big league

bullpens for, I don't know, six years now, it seems like. Yeah, you got to love it, but you know, so many people want to write off our boy, Bryce Harper, and he just continues to do what he does. Let's just keep it going, Jackie Baseball. You are the man. And let's go Phil's. Thank you, Joel. Appreciate the phone call.

Let's keep it going. Let's keep it going. I don't need to get into all the minor league stuff that happened today, but there was a lot of exciting developments in the minor leagues as well. The minor league Phil's starting to have some moments. It's getting exciting around here. Everyone's heating up at the same time. Let's have ourselves a summer.

Let's save the season. 16 and 20, just like that. there's still nine games back at the end of least. It's just so funny. This time last week, we felt like the season was over, it was hopeless, Thompson got fired,

and here we are a week later, and there's hope, there's optimism in the air yet again. Now, tomorrow, the one thing that could stall any optimism is this team facing a lefty starter. They have done a good job of climbing out of this thing and showing signs of life and doing little things better.

Well, hopefully they have a better. Well, hopefully they have a better plan under Don Mattingly against left-handed pitching because that is something that has been a bugaboo for this team. They have not been able to do it all season long, lefty starters specifically. So we will see what they have in store for Jeffrey Springs tomorrow. Good pitcher, solid pitcher, not lights out, but a really, really solid pitcher that has good enough stuff to certainly baffle this baseball team. But Zach Wheeler is going opposite of him. And Wheeler has been nothing short of incredible since coming back, just has come back and looked exactly like Zach Wheeler,

which is really, really awesome and so, so encouraging and very happy for him. And also wild because the guy that I watched in his rehab starts did not look like the guy that is pitched in the big leagues this year. So thankfully, all that time watching Zach Wheeler rehab starts was off or not because everything that was going on there seemed like it was it seems like it was a bunch of nonsense and he was pulling the wool over our eyes

because he looks exactly the same as he usually does up here at the big league level. So Zach Wheeler versus Jeffrey Springs tomorrow as the Phillies go for another series win and improve their record to 9-1 under Don Maddenly. So that's going to do it for me. Louis Coco, who's coming on next? Tom Kelly.

Ah, teeks. Tom Kelly, he'll take it through the rest of the night here on Sports Radio 94, WIPA. Let's talk groceries, specifically, your groceries. With Instacart, you want your groceries just the way you like them, right? Well, the Instacard app lets you do just that. They have a new preference picker that lets you pick how ripe or unripe you want your bananas.

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