Zack Wheeler took the bump in Jupiter, Florida for his second start of the spring, and did not see it go according to plan. Wheeler only went 1.2 innings before being lifted for righty Drew Smith, and threw only 44 pitches. Wheeler, much like Noah Syndergaard yesterday, walked more than a batter per inning. He walked three on the day, and allowed four hits to go with it.
Wheeler walked the leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter on four pitches, setting the tone for an afternoon full of struggle. Wheeler would wind up striking out Paul Goldschmidt, but then walked Tyler O’Neil and give up a run-scoring single to Jedd Gyorko. Wheeler escaped the first with just the one run allowed.
In his second inning, Wheeler gave up a single to Adolis Garcia with one out. Then just two at-bats later, Wheeler gave up a two-out opposite field home run to Carpenter on a hanging breaking ball. Wheeler’s day would end after that, as Smith would replace him and then retire the side.
Despite the rough second start of the Spring for him, Wheeler did not feel like anything was off while he was on the mound, which is good to hear.
“Felt fine. Yanking a few fastballs and with some more reps, timing will get there and figure itself out.”
The right-hander went on to say that he believes that the more reps he gets, the better his pitches will get in advance of the 2019 regular season.
“I think with more reps, I’ll be able to smooth out my fastballs. My command was a little off and I didn’t want to walk Carpenter there again so I gave him one, but it was up. It should have been down a little bit more, but he capitalized on it.”
2018 was the best season of Wheeler’s career as he went 12-7 with a 3.31 ERA, 3.25 FIP, 1.124 WHIP, and 179 strikeouts in 182 1/3 innings pitched (29 starts). He will make $5.98 million this season before hitting the free agent market after the year.
