Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
PHILADELPHIA – Actors crave the spotlight. Talking heads on TV turn on their character when the red light of the camera blinks on.
And then in sports, there are those special players who elevate their game when the stakes are at their highest.
Zack Wheeler is one of those players.
The Phillies ace was at his best in what was probably the biggest game of the season so far. With the Braves trying mightily to get back into the N.L. East race and have the Phillies looking in the rearview mirror and realizing those words at the bottom about objects being closer than they appear are true, the Phillies needed someone to stiff arm Atlanta.
Wheeler did so, and did so with authority, thrusting himself to the top of the N.L. Cy Young race in the process.
Wheeler pitched seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits. He struck out seven and walked none as the Phillies beat the Braves 3-0, ensuring at worst a split in this pivotal series. The two teams wrap up their season series against each other on Sunday night.
“You can tell when he’s locked in and he was locked in tonight,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He’s a big game pitcher. In these types of games, you feel like you are going to get six, seven, eight innings out of him just because he gets locked in and pounds the zone like he did tonight.”
Wheeler said he felt good and that he was getting strikes, but he felt that his command was a little off – especially with his fastball. However, if these are the types of numbers you put up when command is missing, imagine what happens when you have command.
“Honestly I didn’t know where the ball was going,” he said. “I was just trying to throw as hard as I could and hope for the best.”
Wheeler said he knew where his pitches were going about 50 percent of the time, but that regardless of that, the fastball was still effective. He added that he had more control of his off-speed pitches, which helped him have success.
But when things are going well, you don’t even question the pitches that are off.
“You kind of just got to go with it,” Wheeler said. “You just can’t be like, ‘Man, I need to figure it out a little bit’ because (Atlanta) is a really good team and they’ll make you pay for your mistakes. So, you just forget about it and keep throwing.”
There was one mistake that nearly cost Wheeler a run and Phillies their 14th shutout of the season.
Wheeler left a pitch over the plate against Matt Olson in the sixth inning that the Braves slugger crushed to dead center field. It would have gone over the short fence, but Johan Rojas was able to race to the spot and catch the ball with his back against the fence.
It was a good catch, but it paled in comparison to the catch that Braves center fielder Michael Harris II made to rob Austin Hays of a homer in the seventh inning.
Harris lunged over the center field fence, nearly falling completely over the wall all the while reaching back over his head to catch the surefire homerun.
“The Harris catch is one of the best catches you will ever see in this game,” Thomson said. “I couldn’t believe that he came up with it.”
Thomson was not wrong. It was easily the best catch ever made at Citizens Bank Park, finally surpassing the Arron Rowand grab when he crashed face first into the fence in 2006.
For Wheeler, it was career win No. 100. It’s a true milestone, and interestingly enough it came against the same team he earned his first big league win against.
Wheeler (13-6) became the first pitcher since Corey Kluber to do that against the same team. Kluber got his first win against Detroit in 2012 and his 100th against them in 2021.
Additionally, Wheeler and Aaron Nola became the first pair of teammates to register their 100th win in the same season since Stephen Strasburg and Anibal Sanchez did so for the Washington Nationals in 2019.
The duo are the third pair of Phillies pitchers to do it in the same season joining Chris Short and Dick Farrell (1968) and Jim Hearn and Curt Simmons (1957).
The Phillies offense was provided by their starting middle infield.
Edmundo Sosa, getting the nod at second base against Atlanta lefty Max Fried (8-8), hit a solo homer to deep centerfield off Fried in the third inning.
Sosa clobbered it 450 feet, the furthest home run hit by a Phillie at Citizens Bank Park this season.
Sosa would later add an insurance run on an opposite field, RBI double that scored Weston Wilson from first base.
Trea Turner added the other run for the Phillies with a homer of Fried in the sixth. It was just his second home run since July 2014.
With the win the Phillies (80-56) extended their lead over Atlanta to six games in the N.L. East with just 26 games to play. The Phillies’ magic number to win the Division is 21.
ALVY’S BACK
After the game, the Phillies activated Jose Alvarado from the restricted list and optioned Yunior Marte to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Alvarado, who left the team on Monday to address a personal matter in his family, said that everything is now O.K. and he’s glad to be back.
“I had to go to Venezuela,” Alvarado said. “I made it. I’m still alive and I’m so happy to (be back) here with my teammates.”
ROSTERS EXPAND
The Phillies are allowed to expand their rosters to 28 players for the final month of the season. As such they are recalling left-handed utility man Kody Clemens and RHP Tyler Phillips.
Phillips, the Lumberton, N.J. native and Bishop Eustace graduate, is slated to start Tuesday’s game in Toronto.
ON DECK
The Phillies will send RHP Aaron Nola (12-6, 3.30 ERA) to the hill to square off against RHP Spencer Schwellenbach (5-6, 3.72). The game will be featured on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball and therefore will have a non-traditional start time of 7:10PM.
