first year of professional ball, he went 7–1 with a 3.72 earned run average in fifteen games (nine were starts) with the Rookie league Arizona League Giants and the Single-A (short-season) Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. While pitching in the Arizona League, he tied for third in the league in wins, with five. Sánchez was promoted to the Single-A Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League in 2005. He went 5–7 with a 4.08 ERA in twenty-five starts, led the South Atlantic League in strikeouts with 166, averaged 11.9 in nine innings pitched, and was selected to the league's All-star team. During the offseason, Sánchez pitched for the Carolina club of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League, posting a 2–2 record with a 2.91 ERA in 19 relief appearances. Coming into 2006, Sánchez was ranked as the sixth best prospect in the Giants' organization by Baseball America. He began the 2006 season with the Double-A Connecticut Defenders, where in thirteen appearances (three starts) he went 2–1 with a 1.15 ERA and forty-six strikeouts. San Francisco Giants (2006–2011) 2006 Sánchez was called up to the Giants on May 26, , as a reliever. He made his MLB debut two days later on May 28 against the Colorado Rockies. He pitched one inning in relief and retired all three batters he faced (Todd Helton, Matt Holliday, and Garrett Atkins). His performance was overshadowed, however, because Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run in the same game to surpass Babe Ruth for second place on the all-time home run list. On June 4, Sánchez picked up his first major league win. With the score tied at six in the eleventh inning against the New York Mets, Sánchez entered the game and pitched a scoreless inning. The Giants won the game 7–6 in the twelfth on an RBI single by Pedro Feliz. Sánchez posted a 2–0 record with a 1.37 ERA in twenty-two games in his first stint with the team. On July 29, the Giants sent him to their AAA affiliate, the Fresno Grizzlies to improve his abilities as a starter. While at Fresno, he went 2–2 with a 3.80 ERA in six starts. With the expansion of the MLB rosters on September 1, Sánchez was recalled from Fresno. Sánchez won his first major league start on September 6 (in place of Noah Lowry, who was injured), giving up one run in innings pitched in a