Ninety feet can look awfully small in August.
In October, it can end a season.
That was the uncomfortable subtext running beneath the Phillies’ 4-2, 10-inning victory over the Angels on Saturday night, a game Philadelphia ultimately won because Cristopher Sánchez was brilliant, the lineup finally scratched out three runs in extras and enough mistakes were overcome before they became fatal.
There were too many of those mistakes.
Trea Turner was caught trying to take third in the eighth. Bryce Harper was thrown out attempting to steal home later in the same inning. Then Brandon Marsh, beginning the 10th as the automatic runner at second, tried to advance on a ground ball hit directly in front of him to shortstop Zach Neto and was erased at third.
Three outs surrendered on the bases in a game that was separated by one run for almost the entire night.
The Phillies survived them.
That does not make them harmless.
In fact, Saturday offered a strange preview of exactly what Philadelphia could look like in October: a championship-caliber starting pitcher controlling a game, an offense struggling to cash in opportunities and a handful of decisions determining whether seven magnificent innings are rewarded or wasted.
Sánchez deserved better than a no-decision.
He allowed two hits and one walk over seven scoreless innings, struck out eight and reached 200 strikeouts for the second consecutive season. He finished the night with 202, while lowering his ERA to 2.52 across 175 1/3 innings. His 16 victories lead the National League, and he ranks among the league leaders in ERA, innings and strikeouts.
There is very little left to debate about what Sánchez has become.
He is not merely the Phillies starter who developed into something better than expected. He is one of the best pitchers in the National League, and on Saturday he pitched exactly like the man Philadelphia would want taking the baseball in a playoff series.
The Angels barely touched him.
After Denzel Guzman opened the fifth with a single, Sánchez struck out Travis d’Arnaud, Wade Meckler and Neto consecutively, needing only 10 pitches to finish the inning. His strikeout of Neto — No. 200 — came on the changeup that has become one of baseball’s most dependable weapons.
Through seven, Sánchez had thrown only 91 pitches.
The Phillies had given him one run.
That was its own problem.
Angels starter Ryan Johnson needed 60 pitches merely to survive the first two innings. He walked five over five innings. Philadelphia loaded the bases with one out in the second after Brandon Marsh had already singled home the game’s first run.
Kyle Schwarber flied out.
Turner flied out.
The Phillies stranded the bases loaded. Earlier, Luis Arraez had grounded into an inning-ending double play with two aboard. Johnson somehow escaped five innings having permitted just two hits and one run.
Against the Angels in late August, those missed opportunities became aggravating.
Against Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Chicago or another October opponent, they can become season-changing.
Then came the eighth.
Turner stole second with Philadelphia still leading 1-0, then got caught trying to take third. The Phillies challenged, but the call stood.
Later, with two outs and Harper on third, Harper broke for home against Trevor Martin. He was initially ruled safe, but replay showed d’Arnaud getting the tag down in time.
It was an extraordinary bit of baseball trivia: the Phillies became the first team since the 1992 White Sox to have a runner caught stealing third and another caught stealing home in the same inning.
Interim manager Don Mattingly defended the aggression afterward, particularly Turner’s attempt and Harper’s dash home.
Fair enough.
Aggressiveness is part of what makes this team dangerous.
But October has always required understanding the difference between pressure and charity.
The Phillies were nursing a 1-0 lead behind seven shutout innings from Sánchez. Every out had increased value. Giving two of them away created precisely the opening Philadelphia had spent the night trying to avoid.
Neto took it.
With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, he fought Jonathan Bowlan through a 12-pitch at-bat, fouling off seven pitches before driving a sweeper into the bullpen for his 23rd homer.
Tie game.
Sánchez’s win was gone.
And when Marsh opened the 10th at second and ran into the first out on Realmuto’s grounder directly to short, the Phillies had committed another baserunning mistake.
This one Mattingly did criticize.
Then Philadelphia finally showed the other side of running the bases.
Justin Crawford singled, putting runners on the corners. Schwarber dropped a ball into shallow center, and Realmuto correctly waited to make sure it fell before scoring. Crawford aggressively went first to third, while Schwarber took second on the throw.
That was pressure without recklessness.
Turner followed with perhaps the least impressive two-run hit of his career: a 56.6 mph ground ball through the right side. It scored Crawford and pinch-runner Garrett Stubbs and gave Philadelphia a 4-1 lead. The Angels pushed across one in the bottom half before Jhoan Duran finished it.
The Phillies have now won 12 of 14 and improved to 76-60. They hold a four-game advantage over San Diego and Arizona for the second NL Wild Card position, while remaining five games behind Atlanta in the East.
They are playing their best baseball of the season at precisely the right time.
Saturday also supplied the warning label.
A month from now, Sánchez can throw seven scoreless innings and the Phillies can still go home if they strand the wrong runner, challenge the wrong arm or hand an opponent one unnecessary out too many.
They got away with all of it in Anaheim.
The postseason is rarely that forgiving.
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