Sardine City's Sanchez wins 20th

Cristopher Sanchez won his 20th game, putting him squarely into the mix for the Ben McDonald Award, as the league leader in wins, among other categories, and likely the only one with 20 wins.

The lefty put in another quality start in an 8-4 victory at Newark on Saturday night. He went 8 IP, scattering 8 hit sand 3 runs but only 1 earned while striking out 3 and walking 2.

Sanchez was backed by 1st inning solo HRs by James Wood and Nick Kurtz and later Brett Baty's 3-run blast broke the game open, 6-0, in the 4th before Newark scratched few runs across in the 5th and 6th. The win was Sardine City's 99th heading into the season finale series at home versus Empire City as they look to secure the No. 1 seed.

The 29-year-old is the first Straphanger to win 20 games since Lance Lynn went 24-6 in 2020 on his way to securing the Ben McDonald Award and he's probably going to be the DMBL's only 20-game winner in 2026.

San Francisco's Kevin Gausman won his 19th on Friday night but he'll run out of opportunity to go for No. 20, unless the Experience finish in some sort of tied for the playoffs and he starts a tiebreaker. He would be in line to make another start the day after the Game 162. San Francisco enters Sunday's doubleheader tied with 4 other teams for No. 6 (87-72) - but only 3 will make the playoffs.

With his 27th quality start (QS), Sanchez is tied for the league lead with fellow left-hander and former teammate Tarik Skubal of Vancouver. Both also lead the DMBL in QS percentage (.818) and tied for 5th in WHIP (1.06).

Acquired from Vancouver for a 4th round pick ahead of the 2025 keepers, Sanchez has put together a solid resume for the McDonald Award this year. In addition to leading the DMBL in wins and quality starts, he ranks 3rd in ERA (2.81), 8th in strikeouts (220), and 3rd in win percentage (.769), IP (227.1) and CG (3).