Wheeler and Harper lead Phillies to 2 wins for the value of 1 initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Philadelphia
MILWAUKEE — There are few higher emotions for a supervisor in want of a win than writing his ace’s title down on the lineup card, and there is not an ace in baseball the final 5 seasons who has delivered as persistently or as dominantly as Zack Wheeler.
Begin after begin, month after month, yr after yr, Wheeler has proven up when the Phillies have wanted him. Typically it has been to cease a skid. Typically it is to increase a successful streak. Typically it is to set a tone for a sequence. Typically it is to win a sequence.
“He is the Cy Younger, man,” Bryce Harper mentioned Tuesday night time. “I do not suppose anyone in baseball is healthier than him at this level. Individuals down in Atlanta most likely suppose the identical factor concerning the man throwing down there. I feel he obtained robbed of it three years in the past and I imagine he earned it this yr.”
Wheeler led the Phillies to a 5-1 win Tuesday, an enormous end result as a result of it was successfully two wins for the value of 1, growing their lead over the Brewers to 5 video games — 4 plus the tiebreaker.
The victory clinched the Phillies the season sequence over Milwaukee. They’re 91-60 and lead the Brewers by 5 video games with 11 to play, positioning the Phils tremendously nicely to earn no less than a top-two seed and first-round playoff bye.
The Phils additionally picked up a recreation on the Dodgers, who surprisingly misplaced a slugfest in Miami. They lead the Dodgers by three video games for the highest total playoff seed — two plus the tiebreaker.
Harper made Wheeler a winner with an opposite-field, two-run homer off Frankie Montas within the sixth inning of a tie recreation. It was Harper’s third in 4 video games and twenty ninth of the season.
“He is been swinging nicely,” Wheeler mentioned. “The house runs hadn’t been there however he would not at all times must hit dwelling runs. So long as he is getting hits and placing good at-bats collectively, dwelling runs will come. I advised him most likely per week in the past, simply maintain swinging and maintain doing all of your factor, dwelling runs will come.”
Nick Castellanos put the Phils on the board early with a first-pitch, leadoff homer to middle within the high of the second, his twenty first of the yr. It was a welcome signal for a participant who’d hit .178 over his final 13 video games and .114 in September in opposition to beginning pitchers.
The Brewers have been held in verify a lot of the night time by Wheeler. He pitched seven innings of one-run ball, labored forward, missed bats, threw his four-seamer simply above the zone for known as strikes and whiffs, froze hitters with two-seamers, induced weak contact … did all of the issues he normally does.
It is mid-September and Wheeler reached again to hit 97 mph late within the win.
“He used his fastball greater than most likely every other begin this yr,” supervisor Rob Thomson mentioned. “They only noticed the life to it, it had trip up and sink down. They stayed with it and it was actually efficient. Only a nice efficiency.”
The one inning Milwaukee posed a menace was the underside of the fourth when William Contreras singled and Garrett Mitchell tripled him in with one out. Wheeler struck out the following hitter, Willy Adames, on three pitches and ended the inning with a flyout to proper.
Wheeler is 16-6 with a 2.56 ERA and 0.95 WHIP by 30 begins. He is allowed the bottom price of hits and baserunners within the Nationwide League. He is struck out 205 and walked 49 by 186⅔ innings. This has been his finest common season as a Phillie.
He is nonetheless most likely the Cy Younger runner-up as of at present to Chris Sale, who’s 17-3 with a 2.35 ERA and 219 strikeouts, main the NL in every class. But when Sale will get lit up a few times in his ultimate two begins and Wheeler provides the Phillies two extra like this, the numbers and race will even out.
“He is actually one thing, man,” Thomson mentioned. “He is been so constant ever since he is gotten right here. He is earned each penny he is made. He is so big to this membership. He simply takes the ball and may manhandle folks when he needs to.”
Past having Wheeler on the hill, Thomson additionally knew he was working with a rested bullpen. Matt Strahm hadn’t pitched since final Wednesday, Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman since Saturday or Orion Kerkering since Sunday. They’re the Phillies’ core 4 relievers, all boasting ERAs between 1.76 and a couple of.03.
Wheeler handed the ball off to the bullpen with a three-run lead after Kyle Schwarber added seventh-inning insurance coverage by singling within the returning Edmundo Sosa. Trea Turner drove in one other within the high of the ninth with a two-out single after Johan Rojas walked and stole second.
The Phillies are 9-2 this season in opposition to the Dodgers and the Brewers, the groups with the second- and third-best information. They’re 23-10 in opposition to the opposite 5 groups at the moment in NL playoff place, with the next-best file belonging to the Padres at 20-20.
“I feel if you get completed with the season, it is over. You have to maintain going. The postseason’s a unique animal,” Harper mentioned. “It is completely different. It excites me. I feel each man on this clubhouse has the identical demeanor. I do know as a workforce we simply need to be wholesome entering into and attempt to do the job we are able to.”
Wednesday night time presents an opportunity at a sequence win and for Aaron Nola to discover a rhythm forward of the playoffs after giving up 11 runs in his final 9 innings.
“We would have liked a win right here, for positive,” Thomson mentioned. “Try to win the sequence tomorrow. Simply getting the tiebreaker over these guys is gonna be big coming down the stretch.”
