{"id":706712,"date":"2026-05-23T15:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706712\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:48:19","slug":"gavin-williams-and-cristopher-sanchez-make-mlb-history-in-guardians-vs-phillies-pitchers-duel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/706712\/","title":{"rendered":"Gavin Williams and Cristopher Sanchez make MLB history in Guardians vs. Phillies pitchers’ duel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gavin Williams and Cristopher Sanchez make MLB history in Guardians vs. Phillies pitchers’ duel<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Guardians<\/a> made the trip out to face the Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> for a weekend series, and in Game 1 on Friday night, the Guardians won 1-0.<\/p>\n

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However, it wasn’t simply a pitchers’ duel between Guardians starter Gavin Williams<\/a> and Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez<\/a>; it might be one of the best pitchers’ duels ever in MLB history.<\/p>\n

As OptaSTATS highlighted<\/a> after the game, Sanchez and Williams became the first pitchers in MLB since pitch-tracking began in 1988 to have such an elite duel with four qualifiers that make things all the more impressive for both aces.<\/p>\n

Gavin Williams and Cristopher Sanchez make ridiculous MLB history<\/p>\n

“Since pitches were first tracked in 1988, tonight’s @CleGuardians – @Phillies game is the only MLB game where both starting pitchers: pitchers 8.0+ innings, allowed 0 runs, struck out 6+ batters, threw under 100 pitches,” OptaSTATS shared.<\/p>\n

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In the 1-0 win for the Guardians, Williams went eight innings, allowing four hits, no walks, and no runs while striking out 11 batters in 99 pitches.<\/p>\n

While the Phillies lost, Sanchez was as dominant as ever, going eight innings, allowing four hits, two walks, and no runs while striking out six batters in 96 pitches.<\/p>\n

Williams’ performance was more impressive, but both pitchers still were dominant against the opposing offenses, with the only difference a history-making pinch-hit homer from Kyle Manzardo<\/a> in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Phillies<\/a>\u2019 Aidan Miller finally beginning baseball activities amid back injury<\/a><\/p>\n

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Since 1988, there has not been a pair of starters to have this performance against one another, which shows how this game might have a case as one of the best pitcher’s duels in MLB history.<\/p>\n

Sanchez has lowered his ERA to 1.62 with 86 strikeouts in 11 starts with 72.1 innings of work. Williams is down to a 3.25 ERA with 84 strikeouts in 11 starts with 69.1 innings of work.<\/p>\n

Sanchez might be the NL Cy Young favorite right now, while Williams is a ways off from such contention, but a start like this one will help him climb back into the race.<\/p>\n

More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gavin Williams and Cristopher Sanchez make MLB history in Guardians vs. Phillies pitchers’ duel originally appeared on The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":706713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[106,5,51,5143,2078,1389,4,25,88810,89,793,3471,5168,142],"class_list":["post-706712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aaron-judge","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-cristopher-sanchez","tag-gavin-williams","tag-kyle-manzardo","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-pitchers39-duel","tag-red-sox","tag-roman-anthony","tag-sanchez","tag-starting-pitchers","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116624680793409656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/706713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}