ST. LOUIS — The first two Cardinals hitters chased curveballs in the dirt, and the third was late on a fastball upstairs.
Early on Wednesday afternoon, Zack Wheeler looked back to form.
The Phillies right-hander was coming off a stretch of uncharacteristic starts marred by inconsistent command. He gave up five runs in Miami and four runs against Toronto, with a rain-shortened two-inning outing in Baltimore in between. Striking out the side to start the game in St. Louis looked like a positive sign.
But in the fifth inning Wednesday, Wheeler’s command started to look spotty again. Four consecutive two-out hits snowballed into four runs in the 7-1 loss to the Cardinals, Wheeler’s second loss in as many starts. His ERA since the All-Star break is 5.71.
His defense didn’t do him many favors.
The Cardinals scored an unearned run in the second following an error from Alec Bohm. A ground ball hit right at the first baseman deflected away, and he wasn’t able to recover in time to make the out, allowing Jordan Walker to reach. Walker swiped second base — one of X stolen bases for the Cardinals on the day — and then scored after Wheeler let up a double to Nathan Church.
But Wheeler limited the damage there until the fifth. The parade of two-out hits started with a single from JJ Wetherholt that got by Bohm. He was holding a runner at first and wasn’t able to close the gap in time on the hard-hit chopper.
Another single and consecutive doubles broke the game open for the Cardinals, and Wheeler didn’t return for the sixth, having thrown just 84 pitches.
Two more runs scored in the seventh charged to José Alvarado. His command was erratic again as he walked three.
The Phillies were limited by hitting into two double plays, after grounding into four on Tuesday night. They also racked up eight strikeouts, burning both their automated ball-strike challenges by the third inning after Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber incorrectly challenged strike calls.
Their only run came in the fourth inning on back-to-back doubles from Harper and Luis Arraez. The second baseman connected on a curveball over the middle of the plate, hooking it just inside the right field line. It bounced into the stands for a ground-rule double, giving Arraez his first hit in his last 17 plate appearances.
While it spoiled the shutout, it didn’t exactly break Arraez out of his slump. He grounded into an inning-ending double play in his next plate appearance and then flew out in the ninth.
In trading for Luis Arraez at the deadline, the Phillies displaced three-fourths of their infield but left Trea Turner at shortstop. To help make sense of it all, pennant-winning former shortstop and current radio broadcaster Kevin Stocker joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball podcast. Watch here.
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Previous episodes: Bobby Dickerson | Jim Bowden | John Middleton | Ryan Howard | Dan Baker | Ricky Bottalico | Preston Mattingly | Caleb Cotham | Larry Bowa | Joe Maddon
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