The Dodgers left the Bronx and opened their post-All-Star break journey in Philadelphia with a matchup that asks the same blunt question they have carried for weeks: can Emmet Sheehan get enough help. The answer matters now because the Dodgers had taken two of three from the Yankees, but they twice failed to score three runs in the series and now walk straight into Cristopher Sánchez’s home park.
Sánchez, the Phillies’ ace, has been described as the best left-handed pitcher in the National League, and the numbers behind him explain why the Dodgers could not have asked for a tougher first stop. He has seven wins at home and has allowed only seven earned runs there this season, while carrying a near 5.00 ERA on the road and a sub-1.00 ERA in a larger sample at home. That split is not a footnote. It is the whole challenge.
For the Dodgers, the timing is part of the problem. Blake Snell is not back yet, and Shohei Ohtani is taking a break from pitching for an undetermined period while he recovers his knee, so the margin for error is thin even before the game begins. Sheehan has also been one of the few starters to keep the ball in the yard; since the start of June, he has allowed more than three runs just once. The issue is what has happened behind him. Since the start of June, the Dodgers have won only one of his seven starts, and the offense has not given him the kind of cushion that changes a night.
That leaves Philadelphia as more than just the next stop on the schedule. The Dodgers are asking a young starter to hold up against a pitcher whose season numbers look ordinary in one setting and nearly untouchable in another. Sánchez’s last outing offered a reminder that he is not invincible anywhere, after the Tigers put 10 hits on him and scored two runs in a 4-2 defeat. But at home, where he was scheduled to host the Dodgers, the version they will see is the one that has made him such a difficult matchup. If the Dodgers are going to leave Philadelphia with momentum, Sheehan may need the kind of backing he rarely gets.
