Zack Wheeler tried to get Ronald Acuña Jr. to fish for a two-strike splitter in the dirt. No luck. He threw back-to-back sinkers. Both were fouled off.
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OK, then. How about a heater?
Wheeler dialed up 97 mph — his fastest pitch Saturday night — on the outside edge and struck out the Braves star to end the fifth inning. And it would’ve been just another out in a 4-2 Phillies victory save for one thing: Did you catch Acuña’s arms-flapping stutter step around the bases after homering two innings earlier?
“It doesn’t really bother me all that much,” Wheeler said of Acuña’s typical home-run celebration. “He can do whatever he wants. He hit a home run, so it’s up to him to do what he wants.”
But …
“Our guy just rounds the bases,” Wheeler said, referring to Kyle Schwarber, “and he hits 50 here.”
And …
“For sure, it gives you a little more motivation,” Wheeler added. “I really wanted to to strike him out right there and kind of get him back, so to speak.”
OK, put aside the Acuña drama (don’t worry, we’ll come back to it), and here’s the most significant thing from a victory that nudged the Phillies back to four games behind the division-leading Braves: Wheeler allowed one run on three hits and two walks, struck out nine, and lasted six innings after escaping a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first.
In other words, he looked like himself again.
Was there a doubt? You bet there was.
Two weeks ago in Seattle, Wheeler endured the worst start of his worst six-start stretch in seven seasons with the Phillies. It was so bad that he wondered if he was tipping pitches.
A scuba-level dive into his biomechanics revealed that he was holding his glove 2 inches lower than usual and over-rotating through his delivery, causing erratic command. And even after he held the Angels to one run in six innings last Sunday, he wasn’t convinced that he’d completely shaken his issues.
Then, Wheeler gave up back-to-back singles and a walk to the first three Braves batters, and, well, you could feel the anxiety over the status of the Phillies’ $42 million ace creeping back to DEFCON levels.
“It was not, ‘Oh, here we go again,’” Wheeler said. “It was just, now it’s time to bear down. I was feeling good. I just got myself in a little jam right there, so I decided to get myself out of it.”
With a big assist from catcher J.T. Realmuto.
After dangerous Michael Harris II fouled out, Wheeler threw a two-strike fastball to Mauricio Dubón that clipped the outer edge of the plate. After umpire Todd Tichenor called it a ball, Realmuto challenged. The call was overturned.
One pitch later, Wheeler was out of the inning.
“It was kind of gutsy of J.T. to challenge it there in the first, but it worked out for us,” Wheeler said. “He has a really good idea of the zone. I think his challenges have proved that. So, yeah, it was gutsy, but it was good.”
“Huge,” interim manager Don Mattingly added. “To be able to get that punch right there, you talk about leverage, right, in different spots? Sometimes it’s the first [inning], and that was a big one.”
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Another gutsy play: Schwarber’s decision to tag up at second base and take third on a fly ball to deep left field. Not known for his speed, he slid in ahead of the tag, then scored on Luis Arraez’s single.
“It’s early in the game there and wanted to put some pressure on the defense, make them make the perfect play,” said Schwarber, who tacked on his majors-leading 41st homer in the fourth inning. “Obviously it’s a roll of the dice. But it’s a chance that you want to take there.”
The Phillies scored twice in the first inning before Acuña robbed at least two runs with by tracking down Bryson Stott’s bases-loaded drive to right-center. It was 3-0 when Acuña took Wheeler deep in the third — and flapped his arms like Swoop.
“Today’s game, you see it all the time,” Mattingly said. “It’s more commonplace. Let the kids play, right? We started that. That’s what you get. I’m sure it still irritates guys to a point.”
Mattingly said Wheeler “did kind of turn it up a little bit after that.” In fact, Wheeler retired 11 of the next 12 batters, allowing only a two-out walk to Dominic Smith in the fourth inning. He chalked a lot of it up to his splitter, which felt good in the bullpen and produced seven of his 19 swings and misses.
And Wheeler certainly appeared to glare at Acuña after the inning-ending strikeout in the fifth. They’ve dueled often over the years, with Acuña hitting five homers and Wheeler striking him out 16 times in 55 at-bats.
“I mean, he’s a really good player,” Wheeler said. “You make a mistake like I did, he can put it in the seats, so you’ve got to be careful with him and pitch smart.”
It helps, too, when Wheeler is back to being one of the best pitchers in baseball.
“That’s the Wheeler that we all know,” Schwarber said. “Every time he takes that rock, you feel like you’re going to get a performance like that. And sometimes you can take it for granted because you don’t realize how lucky you are to have performances like you see tonight.”
With the minor league season winding down, Phillies farm director Luke Murton returns to Phillies Extra to discuss the state of the system and upcoming changes to his role. He also offers an encouraging update on injured top prospect Aidan Miller. Watch here.
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