Wheeler keys Phils' win despite 'everything' feeling off

ANAHEIM -- Zack Wheeler is winning even when he doesn’t feel his best.

His teammates wonder what it looks like when he does.

Wheeler grinded through five innings in the Phillies’ 2-1 victory over the Angels at Angel Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, helping Philadelphia finish a 7-3 road trip to improve to 21-11 overall. It is the Phillies’ best start through 32 games since 2011, when they were 22-10.

Wheeler is 3-3 with a 1.91 ERA in seven starts. He has allowed one run in 18 1/3 innings in his past three. The Phillies have won each of those games. Wheeler is happy about that, but he is frustrated with his own performance. He threw 106 pitches (67 strikes) in five innings on Wednesday, the most he had thrown in five or fewer frames in a start since Sept. 25, 2014, when he threw 107 in five innings for the Mets.

“You’re going to have rough patches,” Wheeler said. “You just have to battle through it.”

Wheeler got into 3-2 counts with seven Angels batters, the same amount as his start last Thursday in Cincinnati. It’s the first time he’s had a full count against at least seven batters in consecutive starts in his career.

Something felt off on Wednesday. It bothered him.

Was it anything specifically?

“Everything,” Wheeler said.

Like, every pitch?

“Yeah,” he said.

It says something about Wheeler’s personal standards that he isn’t happy even though he is putting up mostly zeros. He expects to pitch deep into games by pounding the strike zone and getting quick outs.

He thinks if he does that consistently, he could win a Cy Young Award.

“I think that’s going to be a good sign for us,” Phillies left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “If this is a time when he’s struggling, I can’t wait to see the good times.”

Wheeler got off his normal routine before Wednesday’s start, pitching on an extra day of rest as the Phillies went to a temporary six-man rotation.

“Having more days rest, just not being as sharp, I think that’s part of it,” Wheeler said, offering one potential reason for his lack of sharpness. “At some points of the season, you probably need [extra rest], but it’s just another day of trying to keep that rhythm that I’ve had going and working on certain things and just another day to try to keep it in sync.”

Wheeler expressed his frustrations about his performance last week in Cincinnati, where he allowed one hit in six scoreless innings in a victory over the Reds. He was unhappy after that start because he walked four batters and found himself in too many deep counts.

But Wheeler seemed far more perturbed on Wednesday.

The fourth was his only clean inning. He always seemed to be in a jam, including the fifth inning when he had a runner on third with no outs. He worked out of that one.

Is there any satisfaction in limiting the damage without his best stuff?

“No,” Wheeler said. “I got nothing out of that. I got a win for the team, but forget about that one, I guess.”

The Phillies scored their only runs in the second inning when Angels left-hander Patrick Sandoval walked Cristian Pache to load the bases with two outs, then allowed a single to Schwarber that scored J.T. Realmuto and Whit Merrifield.

Schwarber hit a bullet up the middle. Angels shortstop Zach Neto either overran the ball or the ball took a weird spin or hop, because the ball rolled past Neto’s right and into the outfield.

It would be the Phillies’ only big hit of the afternoon. They struck out 18 times, their most in a nine-inning game since May 6, 2018, when they struck out 18 times against the Nationals.

“I haven’t seen that for a while,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

The offense did just enough. Wheeler did just enough. The Phils won. It’s been happening a lot lately.

“I’m really happy with how they’re playing,” Thomson said. “They’re grinding. Today wasn’t their best day offensively, and it wasn’t Wheels’ best day. But they grinded through it. That’s what you’ve got to do to win those types of games when you’re not at your best.”