Zack Wheeler Has Atypical Start in Phillies Loss to Dodgers
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler shockingly gave up multiple home runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Video Transcript
Zack Wheeler took the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday evening in their series opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And anytime Wheeler's on the mound, the Phillies should p- feel pretty confident about their chances to win the game.
However, Wheeler had a little bit of an atypical start for his own standards against the Dodgers.
His final line consisted of six innings, gave up five hits, allowed four earned runs, issued one walk, and struck out four hitters.
And now, was it the best start of Wheeler's career?
No, but it certainly wasn't the worst either, and it certainly gave the Phillies a chance to win the game.
But the thing that made this such an uncharacteristic start from Wheeler was that he gave up four solo home runs to the Dodgers.
Now, heading into the start, Wheeler had only given up one home run all season long.
When you look back at the last four years, the most amount of home runs that Wheeler had given up in a season was 20.
So the four home runs in one game certainly was an eye-opening stat for Wheeler, the Phillies, and fans all around Philadelphia as well.
Now, the question, why did Wheeler give up this many home runs?
Was there something wrong with his delivery?
Was it something with the injury?
Was it something he just didn't have his best stuff?
Probably overall was maybe a little bit of a combination of everything, and Wheeler even talked about that after the game too.
He said, quote, "I was just a little bit out of whack, so I wasn't sharp.
Some pitches didn't get where they needed to be, especially against this type of lineup."
And then Don Mattingly added on to that saying, "This Dodgers lineup is just that dangerous.
They're just that good that sometimes if you make one slight mistake, they're gonna make you pay for it."
And that's really what happened with Wheeler on Friday evening.
Philadelphia skipper said, quote, Fr- "Freddy's ball usually, I mean, you don't see many balls stay straight up from a lefty.
Stay, stay straight out of there.
Didn't cut at all.
I thought the ball was gonna slice, but it didn't slice at all."
And that just kind of, kind of goes to show maybe a little bit of the bad luck that Wheeler had on Friday night too.
The good news was that Wheeler actually had a little bit of an uptick in his velocity compared to his season average.
He also had generated 11 swings and misses as well.
So while this was an atypical, uncharacteristic start from Wheeler, I don't think it's necessarily something that the Phillies should be overly concerned about.
Maybe a little bit of bad luck.
The Phil-- or the Dodgers have a very good lineup, we know that, and Wheeler just didn't have his best stuff.
All in all, creating this uncharacteristic start for Wheeler.
At this point, flush it, move on to the next start, and I'm sure that Wheeler will get back on track with a very g- good and dominant season that he's already been putting together.
