WHEEL'S TURNING
Zack's shutout streak now 17 innings as Amazin's - finally - top Braves
Leading up to baseball’s nonwaiver trading deadline, some observers voted Zack Wheeler as the Mets starter most likely to receive a new zip code. There was a belief the asking price was too high. Well, imagine what it might be now and going forward if the righty continues his recent roll.
The Mets would want the state of Hawaii with the gross national product of South America and a half-dozen high-end prospects as well.
Wheeler won his career-best fourth straight start, ran his scoreless-innings streak to 17 with seven shutout innings by allowing just three hits with nine strikeouts and the Mets registered their first home win of the season over the Braves in six tries in a 3-0 triumph Saturday at Citi Field.
“Command is a lot better this year,” said Wheeler (6-6) who has posted a 1.95 ERA in his past four starts. “I’m really executing right now and I hope I can keep that up.”
Keep it up and the Mets could ask for more. Not that they would accept, of course. But Wheeler impressed everybody Saturday.
“You got 98 in the tank with a good breaking ball and a changeup. That’s going to be tough,” said Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers, whose infield roller was one of the three hits Wheeler yielded.
“He obviously pitched really well. I saw the same stuff, same power fastball, same good break on his slider. His consistency’s just allowing him to feel a little more confident each start,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said.
Said Braves manager Brian Snitker: “He was really good. His split was live, his fastball was good. He was just the total package.”
Wheeler set an impressive tone early, striking out the side in the first on 15 pitches, mowing down Ronald Acuna, Jr., Ozzie Albies and All-Star Freddie Freeman.
“Makes me feel good, shows me that my fastball’s lively, keep attacking guys and just trust it,” Wheeler said of the first inning’s impact.
The other two hits Wheeler surrendered in his 104-pitch effort came from Freeman: a one-out single in the fourth — Atlanta’s first hit — and a leadoff double in the seventh. Atlanta slapped reliever Bobby Wahl for two singles in the eighth before Robert Gsellman got the final out of the inning, then worked the ninth for his sixth save.
Callaway debated lifting Wheeler after six. But when the Mets tacked on two runs, sending him out for the seventh was a no-brainer. Callaway noted one individual battle Wheeler won: a nine-pitch strikeout of Nick Markakis in the fourth.
“He’s out there to attack and he’s never going to back down. There might have been a time where he would try to maybe get a little too pitch-y,” Callaway said. “I see him going out and challenging hitters with great stuff. You do that, you end up winning battles like that.”
Jeff McNeil had four hits for the Mets and was involved in their two scoring innings.
The Mets, leading 1-0, drove Kevin Gausman (5-9) — acquired from Baltimore at the trade deadline — from his Braves debut in the sixth inning by loading the bases with no out. Singles by Michael Conforto, Todd Frazier and McNeil did in Gausman, who was replaced by Shane Carle. It quickly became 2-0 as Austin Jackson singled, sending a bouncer that deflected off Carle and kept the bases loaded. Kevin Plawecki’s sac fly to left made it 3-0.