Wheeler’s grand after Dan’s slam
ZACK WHEELER tried valiantly to overcome a four-run mistake pitch to former Met Daniel Murphy, but it wasn’t enough.
The Mets’ young starter dug his team a serious hole to start Sunday night’s 6-3 loss to the Nationals when he threw a fastball at the bottom of the strike zone but right in the middle of the plate to the second baseman, who sent it flying back for a grand slam. The game was only a few minutes old at that point but it hadn’t been pretty before that, too, since he hit Adam Eaton and allowed singles to Trea Turner and Bryce Harper before Murphy’s slam.
“You could just see that the command wasn’t there,” Terry Collins said. “Think he probably threw too many balls in the middle of the plate... They took some pretty good swings at him in the first inning. Not just Murph’s.”
But then something strange happened. After taking the firstinning gutpunch, Wheeler suddenly turned it around. The command came back, his offspeed pitches were working and the outs followed. He was relatively efficient, too, and managed to go seven innings despite that ugly first inning. In his final six innings, Wheeler kept the Nationals scoreless, allowing just a hit and two walks.
“His breaking ball was so much better, his command of his fastball better, using both sides of the plate,” Collins said. “Pitched in very effectively. That was a great start for him after the first inning.”
And Wheeler will be able to take something from the start beyond just confidence from his final six innings. He tried a new changeup grip Sunday night, and, he said, it worked.
“Made a little tweak with my changeup. I asked (Jacob) deGrom about his, made a little tweak with it, and I threw a lot of changeups today,” Wheeler said. “And it was probably one of my better pitches.”
The tweak was simple: He moved his thumb underneath the ball instead of on the side, he said. He felt like the adjusted pitch had better command and more movement.
“The ball was moving a good bit,” Wheeler said. “I didn’t even throw it last bullpen. Today was the first day I threw it.”