Sanchez breezes through RiverDogs

Augusta GreenJackets catcher Nick Conte has called left-hander Jonathan Sanchez's stuff dirty.

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That has been especially true against the Charleston RiverDogs this season.

Sanchez started the season with five perfect innings against Charleston. On Monday, Sanchez struck out a season-high 12 batters in five innings in the GreenJackets' 5-2 win against the RiverDogs at Lake Olmstead Stadium.

The win snapped Augusta's five-game losing streak and Charleston's three-game winning streak.

"It's more relieving," right fielder Brian Horwitz said about winning for the first time since Aug. 16. "We've put a lot of pressure on ourselves lately."

Augusta (29-26) remains four games back of first-place Kannapolis, which beat West Virginia 4-3, in the South Atlantic League Southern Division.

Sanchez entered the game 1-0 with a 1.35 ERA in four starts against Charleston. He had struck out 26 in 20 innings. Now, that total is 38 strikeouts in 25 innings, and he is 2-0 against the RiverDogs.

"That's the best team in the league," said Sanchez, who ran his season total to a league best 154 strikeouts in 115 innings. "They won the first half, and I'm just trying to pitch good against them."

Charleston's Mario Holmann led off the game with a groundout to shortstop before Sanchez, around a walk and three hits, recorded his next 12 outs by strikeout.

Sanchez struck out the side in the second, third and fourth innings.

"He was effective with all his pitches," Conte said. "Normally he's a fastball pitcher, and when you throw in two other great pitches the hitters start taking the fastball for strike three and start looking stupid on some of his breaking stuff."

The GreenJackets gave San-chez a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI double by Brian Horwitz, who extended his home hitting streak to 21 games, and a run-scoring groundout by Mike Wagner.

The RiverDogs erased that lead the next inning. Estee Harris singled to left field to start the fifth. Two outs later, Marcos Vechionacci tripled home Harris and scored on a single by Ben Jones.

Sanchez walked Cody Ehlers to put runners on first and second but was bailed out when Requena made a running catch at the warning track on a fly ball by Edwar Gonzalez.

In the bottom of the fifth, Requena, who was making his first start since having his appendix removed Aug. 1, drove in Conte with a sacrifice fly to center field to give Sanchez a 3-2 lead. Sanchez (5-6) left after the fifth, having allowed two runs on six hits and two walks.

The GreenJackets added two runs in the eighth inning on RBI singles by Horwitz and Simon Klink.

Reach Kristy Shonka at (706) 823-3216 or kristy.shonka@augustachronicle.com.