The National League handed the ball to Cristopher Sanchez for the All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, his own home mound, and it did not go the way the Phillies faithful in the building wanted. Two of the American League's least-hyped stars, Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger, turned an exhibition into a real Yankees highlight reel in a matter of minutes.
Bellinger's at-bat against Sanchez put the AL up 2-0 before the inning was over.
Bellinger has been up and down this year, but this was the version of him the Yankees traded for last winter, a lefty bat who can hurt you against anyone. Eric Hubbs framed it as exactly that on the timeline, noting how good it was to see Bellinger "out of that slump" and back to "hunting left on left" against one of the best lefties in the sport.
Hubbs pointed out Bellinger, a lefty, went and got a left-on-left hit off Sanchez.
Then came Rice, and that's the part of this that actually has a season-long story behind it. Per Pinstripe Alley, Rice and Bellinger were locked in as the AL's 6-7 hitters and both landed in the starting lineup only because of a chain of injuries and withdrawals up the roster, not because either was a lock all-star pick in March. Rice barely got everyday at-bats against left-handed pitching to start the year, and Aaron Boone had to be talked into trusting him there. Now he's starting the All-Star Game and lacing a hit off Sanchez to push the lead to 3-0.
Hubbs traced Rice's arc from Boone's lefty-platoon skeptic to All-Star Game production off Sanchez.
Watching a Cy Young-caliber arm get shelled by two Yankees in the same frame was enough to get people asking questions about Sanchez in real time. Steven Cheah wondered aloud whether Sanchez is "washed all of a sudden" given his rough recent starts leading into the break, a fair gut-check for a pitcher who's spent the year as one of the NL's best.
Is Cristopher Sanchez washed all of a sudden? Tough past few starts plus tonight.
None of it should mean much for Sanchez's second half, All-Star Game lines get overanalyzed every July and forgotten by August. But for a night, it was Yankees bats doing the damage on a big stage, with Barstool Baseball's own recap simply captioning it as the Yankees bats driving in 3 runs off him. Whatever the rest of this game looks like, the Rice-Bellinger connection at the top of the AL order is the thing worth remembering once the standings start meaning something again.