Phillies’ bullpen and bats waste a ‘perfect’ outing by Zack Wheeler in NLDS Game 1 loss to Mets

Zack Wheeler reared back and uncorked a four-seam fastball to Mets left fielder Brandon Nimmo in the first inning on Saturday that just skimmed the top of the strike zone. Nimmo waved at it, but had no chance. At 99 mph, it was the hardest pitch Wheeler has thrown all season.

Buoyed by the sellout crowd of 45,751 at Citizens Bank Park for Game 1 of the National League Division Series, every pitch in Wheeler’s arsenal trended faster than his season average across seven shutout innings. For 111 pitches, the Phillies’ ace gave everything he had, but it wasn’t enough. Wheeler’s offense and bullpen let him down in a 6-2 loss to the Mets.

“It’s really kind of on us to score enough runs for those guys, because they’ve always kept us in games,” Trea Turner said. “Wheels was perfect tonight. He was great. It [stinks] losing the first one. But there’s still time.”

Following a leadoff homer from Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the first, the Phillies’ bats fell completely silent. And when Wheeler was lifted for Jeff Hoffman to start the eighth inning with a 1-0 lead, the cracks started to show.

The Phillies needed three pitchers — Hoffman, Matt Strahm, and Orion Kerkering — to get three outs in the eighth while the Mets tagged them for five runs.

“It stings,” Hoffman said. “Definitely want to capitalize on an outing like that. [Wheeler] did everything he could to keep us ahead in that game, and obviously did an unbelievable job.”

Across the first seven innings, Wheeler had allowed only one hit. While he issued four walks and hit one batter, he did not let a runner advance past second. The Mets had no answer for his fastball; they whiffed 30 times on Wheeler’s pitches, including 14 times on his four-seam.

“These fans, and the adrenaline, has a lot to do with it for sure,” Wheeler said. “Anytime it’s loud like that and a lot’s at stake, it’s human nature. I feel like our bodies just want to kind of take over.”

But in the eighth inning alone, the Mets racked up five hits, two apiece off Hoffman and Strahm and another off Kerkering.

» READ MORE: Hayes: Heart-less Phillies collapse again in Game 1 of the NLDS vs. the Mets, like they did in the NLCS last year

“It was stunning, it was, to see Hoffy and Strahmy give it up like that,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But that’s baseball sometimes. They haven’t done that since we’ve had them, really.”

Thomson didn’t think that the five-day layoff had anything to do with the bullpen’s performance, and said that it was more of an issue with execution. Out of Strahm’s 17 pitches to three batters — including a 10-pitch at-bat to José Iglesias — all 17 were strikes. But after getting ahead, Strahm missed his spots and the Mets capitalized.

It didn’t help matters that the Phillies’ lineup, apart from Schwarber, was experiencing a collective power outage in what was functionally a bullpen game for the Mets. Schwarber demolished the third pitch he saw from starter Kodai Senga, sending it to the second deck, and he later singled in the third. But for the first seven innings, he was the only Phillie to record a hit.

“As an offense, we wasted that start,” Harper said. “I think it’s the same thing: Chasing balls in the dirt, didn’t work deep into counts like we should have. We just have to know what they’re gonna try to do to us and focus, and flip a switch as an offense.”

Harper ended that streak with a double in the eighth inning. He advanced to third on a single from Nick Castellanos that brought some life back in the stands, but was stranded there when Alec Bohm grounded out.

Turner, who went 0-for-4, and Castellanos both said that for the first seven innings, it was difficult to pick up the ball out of the pitcher’s hand due to shadows with the 4:08 p.m. start time.

» READ MORE: Murphy: The Phillies just lost a near-must-win Game 1. The bats better arrive fast in Game 2.

“As soon as the sun kind of went away, the at-bats got a lot better by both sides,” Turner said. “... It’s not fun, but they’re doing the same thing over there. I’ve played quite a few four o’clock postseason games in my career, and it always seems to be the case, and one team wins. So we’ve got to find a way.”

Tanner Banks pitched the ninth and allowed another run on two singles. An RBI double from a pinch-hitting Kody Clemens gave the Phillies a run back in the bottom of the frame, but Schwarber flew out to end the game.

Game 2 is 4:08 p.m. Sunday with Cristopher Sánchez starting against Mets right-hander Luis Severino.