There were moments during New York Mets starter Zack Wheeler‘s season debut on Sunday versus the Washington Nationals that he looked like the pitcher who was one of the game’s best over the second half of the 2018 season. There were also times he looked like the young hurler who struggled to keep his pitches off of the plate, giving opposing hitters a whole lot of canvas to work with.

The 28-year-old right-hander wasn’t beat up, by any means. But his initial 2019 outing certainly couldn’t have measured up to what Wheeler was expecting out of himself after such a substantial breakout last year.

Adam Eaton took a 98 MPH two-seamer into left field on Wheeler’s first pitch of the season, but he settled down to keep the game scoreless early. He was faced with runners on the corners with one out, but struck out Juan Soto on a healthy diet of inside pitches and got Ryan Zimmerman to ground out sharply to Robinson Cano playing close to the bag at second, ending the threat.

Wheeler worked a perfect second inning, striking out his left-handed counterpart Patrick Corbin on a 3-and-1 curveball for his third ring-up of the game. After being handed a 1-0 lead via Pete Alonso‘s 110.9 MPH RBI double in the top of the third, Wheeler allowed a leadoff double down the left field line to Victor Robles to start the bottom half, then a well-hit single to Eaton to put runners on the corners with none out.

Robles would have likely scored on Eaton’s single had he been sent home by Nats third-base coach, Bob Henley, but Trea Turner made that a moot point with a towering, into-the-wind, three-run homer in the next at-bat to give the Nats a 3-1 lead. Wheeler retired Anthony Rendon, Soto, and Zimmerman, who he struck out swinging at a 98 MPH outside-black four-seam fastball, in succession to limit the damage and get himself back on track.

Yan Gomes went down looking at an obviously unexpected curveball right down the heart of the plate to start the fourth, Cano robbed Brian Dozier on a hard-hit groundball while manning the left side of the bag for the second out, and Corbin went down flailing at an 80 MPH deuce to close out Wheeler’s second perfect frame of the afternoon.

Wheeler allowed a one-out single to Eaton on a well-placed, outside-half slider, but erased him on Turner’s fielder’s choice groundball. Turner stole second, then Wheeler may have been squeezed on a couple of borderline-high, two-strike calls in Rendon’s favor and the Nats’ third baseman made him pay with a line shot back up the middle to make it a 4-1 game.

Wheeler finished the fifth with his seventh strikeout of the game, catching Soto looking at another wicked slider to close out his outing after 95 pitches (60 strikes), allowing four earned runs on six hits and a walk.

As per baseballsavant.com, Wheeler averaged 96.8 MPH on his two-seamer, 97.3 MPH on his four-seamer, 91.2 MPH on his slider, 90.1 MPH on his splitter, and 80 MPH on his curve on Sunday, with his hammer and two-seamer racking up eight called strikes apiece. For comparison’s sake, Wheeler averaged 95.9 MPH on his fastballs last season, a career-high, which, in turn, opened up the door for his secondary pitches to flourish.

His continued upgraded velocity this season should have a similar effect, making his off-speed pitches and that outstanding splitter work to their full potential. It seems Wheels just had a tough time locating and, just as Noah Syndergaard did on Saturday, left a few too many pitches over the plate in his first start of the year. It also seems like the Nationals hitters noticed that Wheeler was going to his fastball early.

Mets skipper Mickey Callaway seemed encouraged with Wheeler’s outing, via SNY’s postgame telecast, but all parties involved knew where the right-hander went astray.

“I thought Wheeler threw the ball good. I thought that one inning he gave up three runs, they were ambushing him, and we didn’t quite recognize it early enough. After that, he settled in, started throwing his breaking ball first pitch to offset what they were trying to do and had another couple of effective innings,” he said. “His stuff is there. It was one swing that really cost him. What looks like a bad game wasn’t as bad as it looks. It was one swing on a fairly executed pitch.”

Zack Wheeler has a few things to work on but, overall, his first appearance this year was encouraging. He expressed as much to the Mets’ media corps after the game, again via SNY’s telecast.

“I felt good about today in general. My command was good for the most part. My split-finger wasn’t really that good but the slider and curve were. I’m just beating myself up right now for falling into that little groove of fastball-happiness and that’s really what got me today”

“I think I got a little fastball happy [in the third]. I think they came up that inning looking for fastballs early in the count. That’s really what I’m upset about, for falling into a routine and getting caught. That’s more of a mental note that you take and carry into your next start. I think after that I started mixing it up a little bit more. I’m just really frustrated about that.”

Again from baseballsavant.com, three out of the nine two-seam fastballs Wheeler threw to the Nationals on 0-and-o counts on Sunday were put into play for hits: Eaton’s leadoff single in the first, Robles’ leadoff double in the third, and Turner’s three-run homer two batters later.

It’s nice to see Zack Wheeler got that rectified in short order. He can only go onward and upward from here.