Wheeler for Cy Young? Don't count out Phillies ace

PHILADELPHIA -- Saturday afternoon, Phillies manager Rob Thomson began to make his case for Zack Wheeler to be in the mix for the National League Cy Young Award.

Saturday night, Wheeler gave the Phils a Cy Young-caliber performance.

Wheeler allowed one run on three hits over seven-plus innings, cruising to a 12-1 win over the Cardinals in front of a sold-out crowd at Citizens Bank Park. Wheeler struck out 10 without issuing a walk, collecting the 20th double-digit strikeout game of his career.

“He was electric tonight,” Thomson said. “That's maybe the best stuff I've seen him have the whole year. The four-seam had jump to it, the two-seam had power-sink to it, all of his secondary pitches were good and he threw strikes. You can't ask for much more than that.

“That's what [Cy Young winners] look like right there.”

Wheeler improved to 10-6 while lowering his ERA to 3.59, a figure that will likely have to drop further if he wants to get into that Cy Young conversation. Since opening the year 4-4 with a 4.33 ERA in his first 12 starts, Wheeler is 6-2 with a 3.02 ERA in his past 14 outings.

“I want to be in it, too,” Wheeler said of the Cy Young race. “I appreciate that from [Thomson], but you’ve got to pitch well and you’ve got to put yourself there.”

Cy Young talk aside, it’s important to note that after the Phillies went 6-6 in Wheeler's first 12 starts this season, they have won 10 of his 14 outings since June 8, helping them seize control of the NL’s top Wild Card spot with 33 games remaining in the regular season. When Wheeler’s run began, Philadelphia was 29-32 and three games out of the last Wild Card spot; since then, the Phillies are 42-26, putting them in position to reach the postseason for a second straight year.

“The dude’s a workhorse, man,” said Brandon Marsh, one of three Phillies with a home run in Saturday’s win. “You know what you're going to get out of him. He's not going to shy away from anything. It's always a fun game when Wheels is pitching.”

The game actually remained within the Cardinals’ reach until the seventh, when Philadelphia busted out for seven runs, six of them coming on three-run homers by Marsh and Nick Castellanos. The Phillies have a league-high 48 home runs in August, establishing a franchise record for any calendar month.

But Wheeler’s outing was the best news for the Phillies, who have seen his velocity jump a tick or two during his past two starts thanks to a mechanical adjustment he made before last week’s start against the Nationals.

“The last few starts, it seems like he's getting stronger and stronger,” Thomson said. “Maybe that's a good sign.”

Wheeler’s performance Saturday shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, based both on his work the past two-plus months and his dominance of St. Louis in recent years. Since the beginning of 2021, Wheeler is 4-0 with a 0.51 ERA in five starts (including postseason), allowing just two runs over 35 1/3 innings.

After retiring seven straight to start the game -- including five via strikeout -- Wheeler served up the first home run of rookie Luken Baker’s career. The homer didn’t seem to faze Wheeler, who allowed just one infield single over the next four-plus innings, retiring 13 straight Cardinals through the seventh.

“That was just a mistake that I made and he hit it,” Wheeler said of the home run. “I knew the type of stuff that I had today, and that wasn't going to bother me. Just kind of get right back in there and just keep doing what I was doing.”

Barring an epic September, Wheeler’s numbers are unlikely to thrust him into the Cy Young mix with the likes of Blake Snell, Justin Steele and Zac Gallen. But given the way he’s pitched of late -- he has a 2.51 ERA over his past seven starts -- he’s not ready to concede the honor to anyone with more than a month remaining in the regular season.

“I would have liked to start that a little earlier than now,” Wheeler said of his potential Cy Young candidacy. “But hopefully, I can make a little push.”