Wheeler wraps up wacky week with wild win
PHILADELPHIA » The first two innings Wednesday didn’t go as well as Phillies’ starter Zack Wheeler would’ve wanted. But they also didn’t go as badly as he had feared.
It had been 10 days since Wheeler’s impressive Phillies debut, thanks to a combination of COVID-19 and Tropical Storm Isaias, both of which blew in from Florida. And spotting the home-asvisitors Yankees three runs at Citizens Bank Park in a seven-inning opener of a doubleheader wasn’t in the plan.
But Wheeler recovered to deliver another stellar outing, a six-inning performance in an 11-7 Phillies win.
Not bad considering the schedule havoc wrought by a week off due to COVID-19 exposure when the Miami Marlins were in town and then Tuesday’s rainy wash out.
“It was tough, just on again and off again,” Wheeler said. “My bullpen was pretty bad the other day, my timing was way off. I was kind of worried coming into the game, but once you get out there, you kind of find yourself and what you need to be doing.”
Wheeler needed just 87 pitches to get 18 outs, a boon for the Phillies’ slow-motion disaster of a bullpen that still tested the limits of a seveninning affair. Wheeler allowed just two earned runs (three total), walked two, struck out two, and scattered six hits. There was no conversation with manager Joe Girardi, he said, about Wheeler finishing out what was then an eight-run game.
Wheeler’s first two innings were rocky, with the first three Yankees reaching base against him. The Phillies went down 3-0 in the second when Brett Gardner slashed a hanging 0-2 curveball into the right-field seats for a two-run homer.
But Wheeler settled in and delivered the kind of poise you hope that nine-figures of contact dollars buys. He followed the four-spot posted by the Phillies in the top of the third – remember, they were the visitors in the opener – with a no-nonsense frame with three groundouts. He induced a pair of groundball double plays, including one snared from the mound, and got a third when
Jean Segura grabbed a liner and nabbed Kyle Higashioka straying from first base. He permitted just one Yankee to reach second base in his final four innings.
“It’s a tough lineup,” Wheeler said of a Yankees’ order that was without righties Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit for Game 1. “You’ve got to make your pitches and just try to execute as best you can. Me and J.T. (Realmuto) were on the same page today, and the defense made some plays behind me, and I was able to execute for the most part. I made a couple of mistakes, but it was good.”
The bullpen made things interesting, with Austin Davis and Trevor Kelley conspiring to allow as many hits in two-thirds of an inning as Wheeler did in six frames.
Hector Neris was called upon to get the final out and needed just one pitch to induce a Miguel Andujar fly out with two on and the potential tying run on deck for his first save of the season.
It gives both the Phillies and Wheeler two wins to open this stop-start campaign. While the seven-inning format worked to Wheeler’s advantage, it’s not something he’d like to see all that much more of.
“I’ve done it a couple of times in the minor leagues,” he said. “Those are the ones you try to go out there and get an easy complete game. I think they’re good for this year at least, to keep guys safer.”