Zack Wheeler delivers an all-time great performance, saves the season, and makes history

PHOENIX — Starting pitchers are a rare breed. The great ones, even more so. Their whole rhythm is different. Their view on the world. You spend four days observing, processing, preparing. You are present but uninvolved, unable to impact your environment in any meaningful way. It is a gig that breeds a certain level of detachment, but also a heightened sense of awareness. When that fifth day comes, you know what it means.

A little after 5 p.m. Mountain Time on Saturday evening, Zack Wheeler emerged from the visitor’s bullpen at Chase Field carrying the weight of a season. The last time he’d stepped onto a mound in this National League Championship Series, he’d struck the first blow of a 48-hour onslaught that made a World Series berth feel like a formality. Now, four days later, the series was back to even. Same as it was before Game 1. Except, everything had changed.

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After two straight late-innings meltdowns in Games 3 and 4, the Phillies weren’t just facing a pivotal Game 5. They were reeling. On the road. Their opponent back from the dead. Their own bullpen clinically there. Their manager staring at his roster card as if he might will a new one into existence.

Their one hope was a man who’d watched it all from afar, and who understood what was needed.

“It’s definitely a thought,” Wheeler would say later. “As a pitcher it’s kind of on you, a lot of it.”

The Phillies’ 6-1 victory over the Diamondbacks in Game 5 of the NLCS on Saturday was a lot of things. It was an exhibition of Bryce Harper’s greatness, of Kyle Schwarber’s clutchness, of J.T. Realmuto’s unique ability to be both appreciated and underrated. It was an example of Jeff Hoffman’s guts, of Thomson’s guile, of Bryson Stott’s right to be called the best defensive second baseman in the game. It was a reminder to always give this team the benefit of the doubt.

But mostly, it was Wheeler.

Stakes, setting, and circumstances. Greatness is made out of those ingredients. They are what separates the wheat from the legend stuff. Wheeler doesn’t belong to that class yet. But he took a heck of a big step.

For seven innings, the veteran right-hander kept the Diamondbacks exactly where the Phillies needed them. Off the scoreboard. Away from the bullpen. In their own dugout.

He got some help from his friends in the form of a 2-0 lead before he even toed the rubber. He also threatened that lead by allowing two of his first three batters to reach base. But with one out and runners at the corners, Wheeler did what the best pitchers do. He responded.

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After a strikeout and groundout to end that first inning, Wheeler looked like a man who would have no doubts. The more tenuous the moments, the more tenacious he was. In the third inning, he allowed a one-out single to Corbin Carroll. Six pitches later, the inning was over. In the fifth, he allowed a one-out single to Geraldo Perdomo. This time, he finished the frame in two pitches.

“Don’t let it be easy for them,” Wheeler said. “The first inning they were on, what, first and third, and that’s really when you have to bear down. You can’t let them get momentum at home. The crowd will get back into it. Try to shut that down the best you can and let your guys get the momentum.”

These were seven of the most crucial innings you will see. The Phillies entered the day with a bullpen that didn’t have a prayer of logging more than one or two scoreless innings. Two of their top six presumptive high-leverage arms might as well have been wearing street clothes. Another two had seen significant action in each of the last two games. The rest had inspired little confidence in recent outings. Thomson’s reason to believe in a save situation were essentially Matt Strahm and his potential Game 7 starter.

As good as Wheeler has been over these last two postseasons — more on that in a second — he had only finished seven innings in one of his nine previous starts.

“I always try to go deep,” Wheeler said. “But in a game like this, you kind of get the feel for it early on. And then they’re aggressive, so I tried to use that to my advantage after the first few innings to get quick outs. And then my pitch count was up a little bit early on, so I was just trying to limit that the rest of the game and get quick outs and make pitches where I needed to be able to do that.”

Seven times Wheeler walked out to that mound. Seven times he walked back without the slightest bit of concern.

Seven innings, seven baserunners, one run, eight strikeouts, all of it on 99 marvelous pitches.

Seven innings didn’t used to be a big deal. But these ranked up there with Roy Halladay’s no-hitter and Cole Hamels’ complete game shutout in Cincinnati.

The must-win stuff is often overplayed, but this one was as close as it gets. Teams that won Game 5 to take a 3-2 series lead had gone on to win 15 of 19 times in the league championship series. Sure, the Phillies would have been playing two games at home. But what would that crowd have been thinking?

“He gave us exactly what we needed with where our pen was at,” Thomson said.

This was an all-time great performance. And, lo and behold, look what the numbers say. In 10 career postseason starts, Wheeler has a 2.48 ERA in 61⅔ innings. Only six pitchers in big league history have a lower ERA in at least 10 career starts. Three of those pitchers played before the Great Depression. In the integration era, only Curt Schilling (2.23), Madison Bumgarner (2.11) and Ken Holtzman (2.30) have Wheeler beaten.

Wheeler has a better strikeout rate (9.6 per nine innings) than any within that group. His 7.3 strikeout-to-walk ratio is 50% better than the best of that bunch.

He does not have the innings that the legends have. Schilling, for one, has Wheeler almost doubled. But the postseason is still young, relative to the Phillies’ ultimate goal.

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“It’s cool,” Wheeler said. “It’s special. I take pride in it. There’s been a lot of great pitchers that pitched in the postseason. A bunch of them probably have more innings and body of work than I do, but I try to do the best I can with what I have.”

The Phillies? They did what they could with the best they had.

They were fortunate his name was Wheeler.