Zack Wheeler makes solid final Cy Young case, as Phillies lock the No. 2 seed after loss to Nationals

While the penultimate game of the season meant little to the Phillies, it meant plenty to their ace to cement his status as the best pitcher in the league.

Zack Wheeler made his final start of the regular season Saturday. The Phillies fell, 6-3, to the Nationals.Read moreMonica Herndon / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published Sept. 28, 2024, 7:01 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — James Wood is the Next Big Thing. Emphasis on big. He’s 6-foot-7, with spider arms and endless legs. He has speed, easy left-handed power, and a reserved spot in the Nationals’ lineup for years.

And for two at-bats Saturday, he was no different from most hitters.

He had no chance against Zack Wheeler.

Wheeler was making his final case for the Cy Young Award, and through five innings, the Phillies ace’s closing argument was on the level of Atticus Finch and Lt. Daniel Kaffee. He sliced and diced the Nationals, piling up strikeouts and allowing three baserunners, none beyond first base.

It was almost beside the point that Wood, the prize in the Nationals’ 2022 blockbuster trade of Juan Soto, recovered from looking lost in two early strikeouts to take a two-strike fastball the other way to left field for a two-run homer that put a blemish on Wheeler’s finale.

(Wood also tripled to open the eighth inning and scored the go-ahead run that sent the Phillies to a 6-3 loss that locked them into the No. 2 seed in the National League playoffs.)

Because as manager Rob Thomson got to the mound with one out in the seventh inning to take Wheeler out of the game — 6⅓ innings got the righty to 200 for the season — he extended a hand and delivered a message.

“I just told him, ‘It’s been a hell of a year,’” Thomson said. “That’s Cy Young-worthy, to me.”

Wheeler might not win the award, which goes to the best pitcher in the league. Braves lefty Chris Sale, at age 35, has bounced back from four injury-riddled seasons to likely win the pitching Triple Crown by leading the league in ERA, strikeouts, and wins.

But Wheeler made the race closer than it probably appears.

Wheeler finished with a 2.57 ERA and 224 strikeouts compared with Sale’s 2.38 mark and 225 whiffs. He pitched 22 more innings than Sale. And he led the league with 0.955 walks/hits per inning pitched and a .192 opponents’ batting average.

Oh, and then there was this: Wheeler closed with 11 consecutive starts of at least six innings and no more than two runs allowed, the longest such streak by a Phillies pitcher since the mound moved to its current distance in 1893, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.

“Just that consistency, that’s his best trait, best quality,” said Trea Turner, who tied the game with a homer in the eighth inning. “You can expect him every single day to keep you in the game, give you a chance to win. I think the 200-inning mark is really cool. Strikeouts were great. But he’s just so efficient. He’s a true ace.”

Wheeler was the Cy Young runner-up in 2021. If it’s possible, he was better this season.

Was it the best year of his career?

“When I step back and look at it, yeah, probably so,” Wheeler said. “I felt a little more dominant in ‘21. Not really worried about that. Just worried about winning some games [in the postseason].”

In spring training, Wheeler listed the Cy Young as his personal goal. He added a splitter to his repertoire to improve against left-handed hitters. Lefties were batting .222 with a .718 OPS against him entering play Saturday, compared with .261 and .722 last season.

“I think that was definitely a factor this year,” Wheeler said. “The more I threw it, the more comfortable I got with it. Today probably felt the best with it, honestly.”

Wheeler held the Nationals off the board until Wood’s homer. But after Turner tied it, the Nationals scored four runs against reliever Jeff Hoffman.

At 94-67, the Phillies can’t catch the Dodgers, who will finish with the best record and would host a potential Game 7 of the NL Championship Series. The Phillies will face the winner of the NL Central-winning Brewers’ wild-card series against the No. 6-seeded team, which could still be the Mets, Braves, or Diamondbacks.

“We’d like home-field advantage [throughout the playoffs], but it’s not the end of the world,” Wheeler said. “We’ve still got home-field advantage for a little bit of it, at least. We’ve just got to get there. We’ll worry about that later.”

Something else to file away: Bryce Harper took exception to Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz’s pitch-framing in the eighth inning. A few Nationals players jawed with Harper after he struck out, prompting the benches and bullpens to briefly empty before order was swiftly restored.

Ruiz told reporters that Harper said, “Hey, throw the ball back! You’ve been trying to move the ball!”

“I just feel like I don’t care who you are,” Ruiz told reporters. “I know he’s a really good player. He can be a Hall of Famer. But if you don’t respect me, I won’t respect you.”

Maybe it’ll be a storyline for next season. The Phillies-Nationals rivalry could use some spice, after all.

In the meantime, Wheeler and Wood is a matchup worth watching for years to come. In the third inning, Wood saw three pitches: a 96 mph heater at the knees that clipped the outer edge for a called strike; another 96 mph fastball that rode up and in for a called strike; and a low-and-inside curveball at 85 mph.

After waving at the breaking pitch, Wood turned around and walked to the dugout. He smirked. Maybe he figured something out.

Not many hitters did against Wheeler this season.

Was it all enough for a Cy Young?

“I did the best I could,” Wheeler said. “Chris had a really good year also. He’s deserving of it, for sure. It was pretty cool to see him come back from missing the past four years. Good for him. Happy to see him be back to Chris Sale. It’s pretty cool.”