Relative to his 1.32 ERA and .483 opponent OPS across the second half entering last night’s 9-4 trouncing of the Philadelphia Phillies, Zack Wheeler definitely fell short in a few respects. Despite only allowing three hits, the righty also walked three and hit three more in his first four-run performance since July 14 versus the Washington Nationals.
The alarming lapses of control – as the Mets’ broadcast team pointed out on a few occasions – harkened back to his previous struggles as a fragile, ineffective fringe starter last season. But what ultimately set last night’s effort apart from those of Wheeler’s more erratic days was his ability to settle down, make critical pitches, and grind out seven innings en route to his career-high 12th win of the season.
Save for a few minor hiccups in the second, Wheeler’s first four innings against the Phils were about as efficient as they could have come. It took him six batters before he managed to throw an offspeed pitch for a strike, and eight before he registered his first strikeout (on opposing pitcher Jake Arrieta, no less), but altogether just 44 pitches to get by. The fourth may have been his best trial the entire night, as he opened with strikeouts of Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins and threw nine of eleven for strikes in a three-up, three-down bill that opened the door for his offense to step in and add three more supporting runs.
Perhaps the time in the dugout stunted his momentum, but regardless, Wheeler was pounded upon his return in the fifth. The inning began with a line-drive single from Wilson Ramos, a one-pitch lineout to right off the bat of Carlos Santana, and a Nick Williams frozen-rope single off the mitt of a leaping Todd Frazier. Wheeler’s command immediately evaded him against his next trio of hitters, as he plunked Odubel Herrera with a changeup in on the hands, hung a curve to J.P. Crawford and subsequently suffered through a bases-clearing triple, and shortly thereafter grazed pinch-hitter Justin Bour with a wild fastball inside.
This was the first time Wheeler had allowed more than three earned runs in an inning since June 22 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. And after Asdrubal Cabrera got hit with a fastball two pitches into the sixth inning, Wheeler officially raised his hit batsmen total on the year from six to nine. The usually reliable right-hander had found himself mired in a hole he hadn’t seen in months, and moreover had done so after holding the opposition hitless through a rather predictably dominant first four innings.
After a one-out walk to Santana and a subsequent wild pitch put both a go-ahead and insurance run on third and second, Wheeler again found himself in an unfamiliar predicament. Yet while he had squirmed his way out of significant trouble in the fourth thanks to a sac fly and a fortuitous batter’s interference call against Hoskins, Wheeler kicked things into another gear in the sixth – freezing Williams with a 97 mph fastball on the inside corner before inducing a lazy flyout to right from Herrera just one pitch later.
The narrative repeated itself again in the bottom of the seventh, admittedly to a lesser extent. Now up 5-4, Wheeler issued another one-out pass, this time to pinch-hitter and noted speedster Roman Quinn. Again pitching with an unfortunate workload cut out for himself and one bad pitch signaling a definitive end to his night, Wheeler rose to the occasion for a third time, getting Hernandez to pop out to short before fighting back from 2-0 against Hoskins to get a routine 5-3 groundout and confidently end the start on his own terms.
“I had my legs today and felt good,” Wheeler told reporters following the start. “Velo pretty much stayed put for the whole game, so it was nice.”
All in all, last night was just the second time over his last 11 starts that Wheeler allowed more than two runs in a game. While there wasn’t much reason to speculate that he may have been pitching through fatigue, team management has indicated on a few occasions now that Wheeler could be shut down in the near future so as to avoid taxing his arm. Despite the remarkable strides he has made and continues to make in a Met uniform this season, it is certainly worth noting that Wheeler has now thrown 187 and a third innings (over 100 more than last season).
“We want to make sure we’re taking care of the player…” manager Mickey Callaway said after the game regarding the possibility of a shutdown. “We were monitoring throughout the game. Everything looked pretty good. We’re going to continue to talk to him and see how he comes in [Tuesday] and probably sit down as a group and see if we have a decision to make even if he does feel good because of the innings, but we’re going to do everything we can do take care of him.”
While the Mets want to use the rest of their season to gauge just how much stock they can put into some of their younger players heading into next year, it remains crystal clear that Wheeler has turned a corner in terms of his velocity, movement, and poise. It would be foolish to stretch him out with the team now mathematically eliminated – even more so given his injury history. There’s no shame in taking a more conservative route, especially with the herculean note that Wheeler went out on last night.
