Wheeler dominates Braves once again, Phillies achieve important weekend goal Originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia
Zack Wheeler came out Saturday night and pitched the Phillies toward their first goal of the weekend of clinching at least a split in their season finale against the rival Braves.
The Phillies ace pitched seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 victory. He is 13-6 with a 2.63 ERA and 0.98 WHIP and remains tied with Atlanta’s Chris Sale (15-3, 2.58, 1.02) in the NL Cy Young race.
“Yeah, I hope so,” Wheeler said when asked if he feels well-positioned to win the award. “You come into the season and that’s one of your personal goals and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with personal goals because if you set them and you achieve them or even get close to them, you’re helping the team a lot and that’s all I try to do every year, be the best I can be.”
If they win at least two of their four matchups with the Braves this weekend, the Phillies will be guaranteed a five- or seven-game division lead after Sept. 1. With no head-to-head matchups remaining, the Braves will have a tough time catching them.
Wheeler retired the first six batters he faced, as did Ranger Suarez on Friday night. But as Suarez fell apart in the third and fourth innings, Wheeler kept hitting.
The Phillies’ infield made things difficult for them in the top of the third inning with an error by Weston Wilson at third base and a botched double play attempt by shortstop Trea Turner and second baseman Edmundo Sosa that resulted in just one out. Wheeler got out of the inning unharmed by popping out Whit Merrifield and getting Jorge Soler to ground out to third.
Sosa, who was honored before the game with the Phillies’ 2024 Heart and Hustle Award, more than made up for his defensive gaffe with a 450-foot homer to left-center field off Max Fried in the bottom of the third. It was the Phillies’ second-longest homer of the season, trailing only a 459-foot homer by Turner (also off Fried) in July. Sosa was fired up, flipping his bat and gesturing toward the dugout to cheer on his teammates, then bulking up as he crossed the plate.
“I actually felt really good about contributing so early in the game and giving us a lead,” Sosa said. “I hit the ball and looked back at the dugout just to give them that excitement, that energy, just to hope they would continue to come back and score more runs.”
That run was all Wheeler needed because everything went right for him. He allowed just four hits, all of them singles. There may be others at his level, but no one better.
Since joining the Phillies before the 2020 season, Wheeler has faced the Braves 16 times in the regular season and has a 2.07 ERA, allowing two earned runs or fewer in 13 of them.
“I think the brighter the lights are, the better the control is, the better the finishing is, the better the execution is,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You can tell when he’s focused and he was tonight. He’s a big-game pitcher. In these types of games, you feel like you’re going to get six, seven or eight innings out of him because he’s focused and he’s attacking the zone like he did tonight.”
Atlanta’s most dangerous at-bat of the night came from baseball’s hottest hitter, Matt Olson, with one out in the top of the sixth inning. He hit a 401-foot ball to center that looked like a home run, but it was stolen by Johan Rojas, who ran to the wall in time and calmly stretched out without jumping. It wasn’t even the most impressive steal of the night, as Michael Harris II turned into Spiderman to steal one from Austin Hays in the seventh.
Wheeler responded after Olson’s near-homer with a three-pitch strikeout of Travis d’Arnaud that sent the sellout crowd of 42,730 into a frenzy. Turner kept the momentum in the home dugout with a leadoff homer. It was his first homer since Aug. 18 and just his second in 32 games dating back to July 24.
“I pride myself on great games and great moments,” Wheeler said. “The crowd was electric tonight and I felt it. Any time they’re there and I’m there, it’s great to be a part of it. They brought the electricity tonight and I just tried to match it.
Sosa provided more insurance with an RBI double into the right-center gap in the bottom of the seventh. Third base coach Dusty Wathan aggressively sent the speedy, athletic Wilson in from first base even though Wilson got off to a late start and barely got going.
The Phillies are 80-56 with 26 games remaining. They all count because the Phillies entered Saturday tied with the Brewers for second place in the NL playoffs and the difference between finishing second or third is having to play an extra round, likely against these Braves.
This win was also Wheeler’s 100th career win, a milestone made all the sweeter because it came against his hometown team.
“It was special. No. 1 was against these guys and No. 100,” he said. “No. 1 was at home in Atlanta where I’m from and it was really cool to debut against that team. I remember Jason Heyward was my first strikeout and I worked out with him every offseason. No. 100 against these guys, it’s been a long road. I just believed in myself, worked hard and got wins.”