MILWAUKEE _ On a beautiful upper-Midwest Saturday afternoon at Miller Park, Braves pitcher Anibal Sanchez looked like a man who had been on a job long enough to find a comfort zone where production outshines all reasonable expectations.
Experience, guile and a wide repertoire of well-executed pitches were tools that Sanchez used to pitch five consecutive perfect innings during a 5-1 win that snapped the Braves' four-game losing streak and the Brewers' five-game winning streak, and probably left a few Milwaukee fans wondering if this was the same guy who pitched one state _ and one large lake _ over with the Tigers in recent years.
Sanchez worked 62/3 innings and allowed two hits, one run and one walk while striking out eight, including six consecutively. He fired 57 strikes in 82 pitches. He lowered his ERA to 2.72 in 11 games, including 10 starts for the Braves, who signed the 34-year-old to a minor-league contract in the last weeks of spring training only because they were worried about depth because of injuries.
Staked to a 2-0 lead in the first inning on Johan Camargo's bases-loaded single, Sanchez retired 19 consecutive batters from the second out of the first inning through the second out of the seventh before walking Hernan Perez. That's 19 in a row if you count the first out of that stretch, when alert right fielder Nick Markakis made a strong throw to second base to cut down Jesus Aguilar chugging from first base on Travis Shaw's would-be single turned force-out.
Sanchez struck out Perez to end the first inning with a runner at third and begin one of the better stretches of quintessential crafty pitching that the Braves have seen in some time.
The Brewers didn't have another runner reach base until Perez walked with two out in the seventh, and Brad Miller followed with a sharp single that caromed off Sanchez's right hip and squirted past diving shortstop Dansby Swanson into left field, scoring Perez to cut the lead to 2-1. A trainer checked on Sanchez, and he looked like he wanted to continue, but reliever Dan Winkler replaced Sanchez and recorded the third out.
The Braves expanded their lead with three runs in the eighth on consecutive RBI triples by Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis after Ozzie Albies' leadoff single, and a two-out, bases-loaded pinch-hit single from Ryan Flaherty.
Regular closer Arodys Vizcaino pitched the eighth inning instead of the ninth, with A.J. Minter handling the ninth. Manager Brian Snitker has said he intends to use both and also Winkler to close some games going forward.
When the Braves signed Sanchez late in spring training to a deal potentially worth a modest $1 million, it wasn't a move met with wide praise. More like rolls of the eyes or shrugs of the shoulders, folks figuring he would be nothing more than a fifth-starter candidate and wouldn't be long for that role once Luiz Gohara was healthy and stretched out in Triple-A.
But Scott Kazmir was released before the end of spring training, Gohara took longer than expected to get healthy, and Sanchez kept coming up big in most of his starts, first at spring training and then in the regular season. He made one regular-season relief appearance before moving to the rotation, then after two solid starts he pulled a hamstring in mid-April and spent six weeks on the disabled list.
Once again there were doubts if Sanchez would pitch again for the Braves, as that DL stint stretched longer than expected. But when they had a need again and he was ready, he stepped back into the rotation and picked up where he left off. The Braves have won seven of his past nine starts, and Sanchez has a 2.59 ERA in his past seven starts, allowing two earned runs or fewer in five of those seven games and working six or more innings in four.
To recap, this is a 13-year veteran who was released by the Twins during spring training and signed a minor-league deal worth $1 million with the Braves. A guy who just finished a five-year, $80 million deal with the Tigers that started with two good seasons and ended with three bad ones.
He had a 20-30 record 4.67 ERA during the 2015-17 seasons in 88 games, including 68 starts. He gave up an alarming 85 home runs in 4152/3 innings in that span, including an American League-high 29 homers in 2015, 30 homers in 2016 and 26 homers in 1051/3 innings in 2017.
But with the Braves, Sanchez is pitching as if rejuvenated. Or as if he's figured things out. Or both. He's given up eight homers in 592/3 innings, but only two homers in his past five starts, and Saturday he kept the ball in the park against a power-laden Brewers team that came in with the second-most homers in the majors.
Before Saturday, Sanchez had a 6.37 career ERA in eight starts against the Brewers, including a 10.42 ERA in his past four dating to 2010 when he was with the Marlins. But on this sunny afternoon with the temperature in the upper 70s, the veteran pitcher looked like a man plying his craft in a manner in which only someone who has done it for a long time can.
