Phillies ace Zack Wheeler rebounds from World Series fiasco with another historic performance

One hundred pitches. Sixty-seven strikes. One run. A deafening send-off ovation from 45,662 fans bedecked in the red of a most jubilant Philadelphia October.

That was Tuesday’s workday for Zack Wheeler in a 4-1 Game 1 win of the NL wild-card series with the Marlins. How was your workday Tuesday? If it was as good as his, your boss owes you a bonus.

Wheeler is making $24.5 million in the fourth year of a five-year, $118 million contract. That’s not top-eight among starters.

He’s an artist unappreciated in his time, like Vincent Van Gogh, or Johann Sebastian Bach, or Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka.

“I hope people appreciate [him],” said manager Rob Thomson. “The guy has been phenomenal.”

Wheeler does not disagree.

“I feel like I’m doing my job,” Wheeler said. “I came here, the reason they signed me was to pitch like I am. I knew what I was capable of.”

Maybe his bosses needed more convincing of Wheeler’s capabilities.

The last time Wheeler pitched in the postseason, it was Game 6 of the World Series, and Thomson analytic-ed him off the mound after 5⅓ scoreless innings with a 1-0 lead after just 70 pitches. Seventy. Pitches.

José Alvarado entered, gave up a homer, and the Phillies lost the game and the series.

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Maybe next time, with this gem in mind, Thomson will turn a deaf ear to the calculator crowd and leave one of the game’s best pitchers in to sink or swim. Because when the leaves turn red, Wheeler swims like Michael Phelps.

This is what the best pitchers do. Wheeler is among the best right now, and he’s off to a better postseason start than some of the best ever.

The best, like Justin Verlander. Like Max Scherzer. Like Gerrit Cole and Corbin Burnes and Sandy Alcantara, the Marlins’ ace who, unlike Wheeler, won’t pitch in this series or this postseason, because Alcantara is hurt. The best ever, like Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson.

“There’s nobody I’d rather have on the mound in those spots, in those situations,” said two-time MVP and 2022 postseason hero Bryce Harper. “Not any moment is too big for Zack Wheeler.”

“The other guys have numbers, but so does he. This is a prime example, and he’s only getting better with time,” said Kyle Schwarber, who has faced the best. “He flies under the radar.”

Not in Philly.

Wheeler got a standing ovation before the game as he walked across the field from the dugout to the bullpen to warm up, which, he said, gave him chills. He was cool all night.

He allowed a Marlins hit to start the third but got a broken-bat double play to end that inning. He erased a two-out single in the fourth with the fourth of his eight strikeouts. Josh Bell doubled with one out in the seventh, and it looked like Wheeler was going to quash that, too.

He froze Jazz Chisholm Jr. with a 96 mph fastball whose seams nipped the lower lip of the strike zone, which led Chisholm to give lots of lip to umpire Stu Scheurwater, who, replays showed, was right.

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But then Wheeler failed to cover first base quickly enough on a ground ball to second to beat Jake Burger; Wheeler assumed that Harper, the inexperienced first baseman, would cover, said Thomson, since the ball was hit so far to Harper’s right that he had to dive for it.

At any rate, Wheeler then gave up a scorched one-hopper to third base, which Alec Bohm speared but could not throw from his knee with enough pace to retire Bryan De La Cruz, and that was that. Wheeler didn’t get the benefit of the doubt on a checked-swing strike that would have dispatched De La Cruz. A fifth hit, but them’s the breaks, even for an ace.

And that was that. Wheeler had done his job.

Alvarado entered, got a strikeout, and, this time, did his. Did Thomson experience a bit of déjà vu?

“Well, not really,” he said, laughing, “but I might lie.”

Wheeler’s latest masterpiece continued a seven-game run of superb postseason starts, all with the Phillies in the last two autumns. His performances stack up with anyone’s.

Hall-of-Fame anyones.

Wheeler’s playoff ERA now is 2.55, which is a better first seven starts than Johnson (3.10), Clemens (3.45), Scherzer (3.46), and Verlander (5.71).

He’s almost been as good as Curt Schilling (1.70), but then there’s only one Curt Schilling, thank God.

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You could feel this coming. Wheeler was great down the stretch.

In his previous 15 starts Wheeler went 6-2 with a 3.17 ERA. Subtract a five-inning, six-run, three-homer disaster against the Big Braves Machine on Sept. 12 (it’s a fair mulligan), and that ERA drops to 2.74. Most compellingly, Wheeler lasted at least six innings in 13 of 14 starts, the exception being the five-inning aberration against the Braves.

Now one win away from the NLDS, Thomson said Wheeler saved his best for when the Phillies needed it most.

“Tonight, his stuff was as good or better than any other start all year,” Thomson said. “He did it all last year in the postseason, too.”

You could feel his teammates feeling it coming. They live by the long ball, but Tuesday, with Wheeler dealing, they knew homers weren’t necessary.

By the end of the fourth inning, eight of the nine Phillies starters had at least one hit; only Harper hadn’t reached base. The Phillies had three runs. Harper got his hit in the eighth, and, hilariously, later ran through Dusty Wathan’s unmissable stop sign on a wild romp home.

The Phillies scratched hits, ran hard, but nobody hit a home run. Nobody really tried.

Most of the lineup had struggled against Marlins lefty Jesús Luzardo, so they worked him to death. They forced at least 23 pitches in three of the first four innings, and he was toast after 90 pitches.

It was a night framed around Wheeler: Give him a little cushion and watch him work.

“We knew Luzardo, and we knew if we had Wheels on the mound, if we put a run or two up early, we’d have a great chance,” Schwarber said. “We did, and Wheels didn’t look back.”

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When you’ve got an ace, you expect him to ace. And brother, do the Phillies have an ace.

Since 2018, no pitcher with at least 100 starts matches Wheeler’s 3.28 ERA, and he’s got 161 starts.

Nobody with at least 150 starts is even close.

That’s what the best do, over and over and over again.