Zack Wheeler VERY efficient in start vs. Red Sox
The Phillies Postgame Live crew takes a deep dive into Zack Wheeler's start on Tuesday against the Red Sox.
Zack Wheeler VERY efficient in start vs. Red Sox originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Video Transcript
Zack Wheeler and his outing tonight.
That is our Eye on the Mound, presented by PGW.
Wheeler, seven and a third, six hits, one earned, four strikeouts.
We were just talking about him, him going deeper into games.
This is what you want to see now, now that he's come back from that thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.
Now his fourth start back, going deeper into games.
27 batters he faced, only 87 pitches.
Yeah, a really nice job and very efficient.
I mean, strike throwing machine, 65% strikes, a little over 65% strikes out of him.
And again, these give, this Boston Red Sox team, they were, you know, they were hacking.
Right.
but the defense played really well.
Nice little double, double play there, one of two of them that were big in the early part of the game.
And I mean, he was just super efficient.
Now, I like when he's, he's throwing that 96 mile an hour fastball up in the zone, getting over the, the hitters', barrels.
That's, that, that shows that he's got his life back on his fastball.
It's good stuff.
Yeah, so did you see enough?
'Cause I know you were looking for a couple different things, from him in this outing.
Yeah, his split was really good but, I mean, today, I mean, he just felt like his fastball was gonna work for him.
He threw, 41% four-seams and 23% sinkers.
And I mean, that, that's a ton of, fastballs, and he was feeling it today.
Yeah, so you see him come back out for the eighth inning, and you're thinking, "Wow," like, and that's a, a little bit one of those excuse me singles, but you're thinking this guy can maybe go a little bit even further.
Yeah, they got, two or three hits that really were not hit all that hard.
I mean, early in the game he got hit a little bit.
Some of those balls were hit pretty hard.
But they, had a couple dunkers in there- Mm-hmm and, and, and put a little heat on him.
So, so, Donny went to Alvarado.
Here comes Jose Alvarado.
this one he obviously cleared himself quite well.
Gets, Duran.
Gets him out.
And this one, Duran's fast.
Yeah, he can, he can run, but the, but the nice job by was Uras, I think, who was, running for first or second.
He deci- he decides to get- Oh, it was the pinch runner right here.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Yeah, that's right, it was the pitch runner.
really nice job of getting a good secondary and almost beating this play.
Fortunately, he got his foot- Ooh, just got him Dre got his foot on there just prior.
Good recovery.
This could've been a double play even with, Duran running, had he, fielded it cleanly.
Yeah.
Did not quite do that, but he did get him, at least get the lead runner, which was big.
Yeah, Duran was sitting there on, first base.
But Alvarado, he is out, correct.
They've reviewed that.
here's the rest of the inning right there.
That's a pretty good lead.
So you knew Duran was gonna try to do this, 'cause he is very fast.
Yeah, he gets a great jump.
And Albie, Albie does not hold runners all that well.
There's no question that he doesn't have a great move, and they know that.
They've seen him from, the American League before.
But really great little slider here to punch out that next hitter, and- Jasper I think that's one of the things that Alvarado does really well when the games are tight, is he actually gets them to swing at a lot of pitches- Mm-hmm that are just off the plate.
Yeah, the guy sitting at third, would've been the tying run, and he gets him to chase at that one and swing at that one.
Here's a look at, of what we're talking about as far as the night for Zack Wheeler.
Very efficient.
87 pitches, 57 of them for strikes.
2.55 ERA in his four starts this season since he came back, from the IL.
So this is, I think this is maybe, and you said it in the pregame show, he's a little bit ahead of where you expected him to be at this point, coming back from that surgery.
He certainly is.
And, and again, he didn't get a lot of strikeouts today, but he didn't need them because he just got quick outs.
And that's, that's the most- Yeah important thing.
I, I really enjoyed watching him pitch.
It was almost like, he's a little sort of Greg Maddux-esque a little bit with his efficiency today, with better stuff overall.
but he was throwing a ton of strikes, getting those early outs and, and it paid off later on because he got all the way into the, you know, i- into the eighth inning.
Mm-hmm.
Which is, which is a real big plus for this bullpen.
Especially with just 87 pitches all the way into the eighth inning.
