Sanchez snares Pitcher of the Week award

Sixto Sanchez isn't bored. He's just finding ways to challenge batters, and himself.
The Phillies' No. 2 prospect was dominant over two scoreless starts last week, earning South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Week honors Monday.

Sanchez, a 19-year-old right-hander, struck out 10 over 11 scoreless innings across starts on July 24 and on Sunday for Class A Lakewood. The native of the Dominican Republic allowed five hits and three walks while picking up his fifth win and lowering his ERA to 2.41 over 13 starts.
"It almost gets to a point where he almost gets, I don't want to say bored, but he's competed so well that he's able to work on different things, which is important for him, like his slider and his changeup," Lakewood pitching coach Brian Sweeney told MiLB.com.
"When you're coming with a 100 mph fastball, it's pretty easy to just use that, but now as he's settling in, he's using all of his pitches and learning how to build outs."
• View the Player of the Week winners »
Sanchez's most recent outing against Hickory marked his eighth straight in which he allowed fewer than three earned runs and was his sixth in 13 starts this year without any walks.
Sanchez went five innings against Charleston on July 24 to win his second straight outing -- a rain-shortened complete game -- before taking a no-decision in six frames against the Crawdads. He's 5-1 in his last nine appearances.
"He's been pretty consistent all year," Sweeney said. "The key for Sixto is his delivery. He's got a pretty clean delivery where he uses his legs efficiently and he's able to fill up the zone very consistently with three pitches. When you can do that in the South Atlantic League, you're going to have good success."
Sanchez signed with Philadelphia in May 2015 and spent the last two seasons at the Rookie level. This year, his first full season, he's struck out 64 and walked just nine in 67 1/3 innings after earning Gulf Coast League All-Star honors in 2016.
Below is the complete list of Minor League Pitchers of the Week for July 24-30:

Pitchers of the Week