Zack Wheeler pitched five innings and allowed two runs Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
If he was some run-of-the-mill fifth starter, you\u2019d give that performance a big kiss and take it right to the bank.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s nothing run-of-the-mill about Wheeler.<\/p>\n
Since arriving in Philadelphia before the 2020 season, he has been the best starting pitcher in Major League Baseball, his 31.8 fWAR topping Kevin Gausman\u2019s mark of 27.1<\/p>\n
But lately, Wheeler hasn\u2019t lived up to his lofty track record, and that has to be a concern for a Phillies team that pins so much of its October hopes on its top three starters — Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo and Wheeler.<\/p>\n
For the second straight start Tuesday night, Wheeler ran into trouble with two outs in the fifth inning. He left the game down a run \u2013 with four walks on his final line \u2013 before his mates ultimately got him off the hook on their way to a 6-4 win over the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been hit or miss with what I have that day and I\u2019m kind of not used to that,\u201d Wheeler said of his recent outings. \u201cSo, it\u2019s a battle. I just have to put everything together. I know I\u2019ve still got it. There\u2019s no question about that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys picked me up tonight. We\u2019ve had a lot of good at-bats lately. That\u2019s what good teams do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alec Bohm and Bryson Stott continued to swing hot bats. Along with Justin Crawford, they had the big hits that fueled a four-run rally as the Phillies fought back from a 3-1 deficit and took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth inning.<\/p>\n
Stott also played brilliantly at third base, making two stellar plays in the ninth inning to help Brooks Raley get the save on a night when Jhoan Duran was unavailable after throwing 43 pitches the previous two days.<\/p>\n
The victory was the Phillies\u2019 fifth in a row, matching a season-high. They are back to 11 games over .500, also matching a season-best.<\/p>\n
With 35 games remaining in the regular season, they are in control of the National League\u2019s second wild-card playoff berth.<\/p>\n
Things seem to be pointing in the right direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure,\u201d Bohm said. \u201cWe kind of stumbled out of the break a little bit. But of late, we\u2019ve kind of corrected that, I guess. I think it\u2019s just showing up every day. That\u2019s always the mindset in this clubhouse. Just continue to roll with that. Show up, prepare, go do what it takes to win a game and move on to the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the offense is clicking and the wins are following, there is some reason for unease, specifically as it relates to the indispensable Wheeler.<\/p>\n
He has allowed five two-out runs in the fifth inning in his last two starts. He has walked 10 in his last three starts. That\u2019s four more than he had in six starts in May. He has seen the sixth inning just once in his last five starts, though rain shortened one of those outings. His ERA over his last five starts is 6.64.<\/p>\n
He has gone six straight starts without a win. Granted, he was knocked out by rain in one of those starts. Nonetheless, it\u2019s his longest victory drought since 2018 when he was a New York Met.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not Zack Wheeler.<\/p>\n
Especially the walks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the frustrating part,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not characteristic of me. I\u2019ve been walking too many the past handful of games. We\u2019ve got to figure it all out together. It\u2019s just a little rough stretch for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler\u2019s stuff was good Tuesday night. He made a mechanical tweak to get into his legs more and that helped his fastball. It topped out at 97.1 mph and averaged 95.5, up from its season average of 95.1. He threw a first-pitch strike to 15 of 21 hitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past couple of games, once I get into the game a little deeper, it just doesn\u2019t work out for me,\u201d Wheeler said. \u201cThe fastball felt as good tonight as it has in a really long time actually. But my offspeed was not good. It\u2019s hard to pitch with one pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler gave up a solo home run to Griffin Conine on a misplaced 0-2 fastball in the second inning.<\/p>\n
It was a 1-1 game entering the fifth. Wheeler got the first two outs then walked the next two batters before Xavier Edwards put the Marlins up, 2-1, on a base hit to left-center. Edwards was out stretching as Wheeler\u2019s night came to an end. He threw 98 pitches, 32 in the fifth inning. Eighteen of the 32 came against the first two batters. Did that take something out of the 36-year-old right-hander?<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say it took anything out of me,\u201d he said. \u201cHonestly, I felt fine coming out of that game, health and energy-wise. I just dug myself a hole there. I got into a lot of deep counts, especially in that last inning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manager Don Mattingly seemed unconcerned with Wheeler\u2019s recent struggles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis stuff seems fine,\u201d Mattingly said. \u201cGuys are just battling. You get to that second and third time through the order, it just gets harder and harder to get through a lineup. Especially a lineup like Miami that puts the ball in play, fouls stuff off, doesn\u2019t make quick outs. They put pressure on you. I don\u2019t know what to make of it. I worry more about whether this guy is giving us good starts and keeping us in games. Zack is not one of the guys I worry about. He\u2019s been Zack Wheeler for a long time. His stuff is still good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler lines up to pitch again Monday night in Seattle. It’s a big start given his importance to where this team is trying to go.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler pitched five innings and allowed two runs Tuesday night. If he was some run-of-the-mill fifth starter,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1010204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,64094,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1010203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-phillies-analysis","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117120675992660455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1010203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1010203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1010203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1010203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1010203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}