Phillies All-Star Cristopher Sánchez welcomes a baby boy ahead of his Game 2 NLDS start

Sport

Phillies All-Star Cristopher Sánchez welcomes a baby boy ahead of his Game 2 NLDS start

2024-10-06 02:40 Last Updated At：02:50

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cristopher Sánchez has a new job ahead of his playoff start for the Philadelphia Phillies: dad.

Sánchez and his wife welcomed a baby boy days ahead of the All-Star pitcher’s start in Game 2 of the NL Division Series against New York on Sunday.

The 27-year-old earned his first All-Star berth on the strength of a regular season that finished at 11-9 with a 3.32 ERA and his first career shutout.

The birth of his first son — “BABY CRIS,” he wrote on Instagram — well, that trumped all his professional achievements.

“I think there’s nothing that beats getting home to my kid right now,” Sánchez said Saturday through an interpreter. “I’m just spending time with him, holding him every five minutes. Just all around, being all over him. That’s just something I can’t describe right now.”

Sánchez said his son was born Monday. He captioned a photo of the boy named Cristopher with: “Our dream baby is here. Mommy and Daddy love you so much.”

Sánchez got the nod over playoff-tested veteran Aaron Nola for Sunday’s start at Citizens Bank Park on the strength of his road vs. home splits. Sánchez went 7-3 with a 2.21 ERA in 17 starts at home. He went 4-6 with a 5.02 ERA in 14 road starts.

Nola starts Game 3 in New York.

Sánchez started just one game in the 2023 playoffs, throwing 38 pitches over 2 1/3 innings in a Game 4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Championship Series.

His improvement this season was rewarded in June. The Phillies signed Sánchez to a $22.5 million, four-year contract extension through the 2028 season.

“It’s really amazing the steps that he’s taken, the growth that he’s had, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “The slider he’s landing. Gone deep in the games. Held his composure. Has had some innings where he could have fallen apart, which he’s done in the past, and just kept fighting through it, maintaining his composure and poise. He’s just grown leaps and bounds.”

In a season full of firsts, Sánchez can’t wait for his first start as a father.

“It was the best time possible. It all happened in perfect timing. I was able to go to the hospital and meet my kid, my wife, and just spend two days with them at the hospital,” he said. “All normal to me. The next day I just came here, did my throwing program, had a bullpen session, and it’s all been just regular for me, luckily.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Germans mourn attack on Christmas market with no answers about why

2024-12-21 15:18 Last Updated At：15:21

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans began Saturday mourning another violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers on Friday evening, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old who has been living in Germany for nearly two decades and practicing medicine there. He was arrested Friday evening at the site of the attack as medical officials tended to the injured, and was taken into custody for questioning.

But on Saturday there were still no answers as to what caused the man to drive into a crowd in the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg.

The violence shocked the country and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser were due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives," Scholz wrote on X. "We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”

Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers soon arrived and took the man into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn't be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city," Saxony-Anhalt's governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and who had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but did not mention the suspect’s connection to the kingdom.

Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.

Hours after Friday's tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.

Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened.”

She called the attack “a dark day” for the city.

“We are shaking,” Steffen said. “Full of sympathy for the relatives, also in the hope that nothing has happened to our relatives, friends and acquaintances.”

The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.

“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring," the governor said.

Moulson reported from Berlin.

Phillies All-Star Cristopher Sánchez welcomes a baby boy ahead of his Game 2 NLDS start

Sport

Phillies All-Star Cristopher Sánchez welcomes a baby boy ahead of his Game 2 NLDS start

Next Article

Germans mourn attack on Christmas market with no answers about why

Government funding bill clears Congress and heads to President Biden, averting a shutdown

NORAD’s Santa tracker was a Cold War morale boost. Now it attracts millions of kids

Senate passes Social Security benefits boost for many public service retirees

Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation

Makar, Avalanche continue special teams success in 4-2 win over Ducks

Government funding difficulties create gloom for federal workers before Christmas

Florida requires teaching Black history. Some don’t trust schools to do it justice