ST. LOUIS -- The Blue Jays’ doubt about whether Zack Wheeler’s right foot was making sufficient contact with the pitching rubber in his last start played no role in Wednesday’s 7-1 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Indeed, the only contact-adjacent question was whether St. Louis would make much of it at all. For nearly five innings, it appeared that Wheeler had returned to his typical dominance, but four two-out runs by the Cardinals flipped what might have been a strong start into another frustrating outing.
After needing just 49 pitches to dispense of St. Louis’ offense through the first four innings, the Cardinals forced Wheeler to grind out 35 pitches in the fifth. That included a single to right by third baseman César Prieto, who was previously 0-for-27 in the big leagues this season. The rally was capped by four consecutive hits from the top of the Cardinals’ order, with Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker driving loud RBI doubles to put an exclamation point on the inning.
“It’s a frustrating day just in general,” Wheeler acknowledged. “Made some good pitches I felt like, and they just put the bat on the ball. It’s just one of those games that you’ve kind of got to forget, learn what you learn, and just go forward.”
Wheeler struck out the first three hitters he faced in the series finale but just five in all, and he didn't reach the sixth inning for the third time in his last four starts. He walked one and hit a batter while allowing five runs (four earned) on six hits over five innings.
Each of Wheeler’s three outings prior to Wednesday, in which he tallied a combined 10 1/3 innings, were marred by some sort of unusual circumstances. An uncharacteristic three-inning outing in Miami on July 27 saw him clocked for five earned runs and a dip in velocity that the Phillies downplayed as part of the consequences of working through a long season.
Six days later in Baltimore, he threw two uneventful innings before a summer thunderstorm interrupted the contest and brought an early end to his day. Then came the rough start at home against the Blue Jays, and the controversy regarding his foot placement. Wednesday marked the third time in Wheeler’s last four starts that he allowed at least four earned runs, with the lone exception being the rain-truncated start at Camden Yards.
In 20 starts thus far in 2026, Wheeler has only allowed four or more earned runs on five occasions; three of those have come since July 27.
“Obviously, you feel good about him going into that [fifth] inning,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “He’s in a good spot, you know, obviously you’re going to stick with him. We’re not going to try to go to the bullpen to get out of anything there. You’re gonna give him a chance to get out of those.
“It’s a little, obviously, uncharacteristic. He’s usually going to finish that inning, and you know, the guy gets a hit. They get hits, but it’s usually not in succession like that.”
Much of the last few weeks have been uncharacteristic for the Phils, who rebounded under Mattingly to find themselves in the thick of the playoff race but have now dropped their last two series and six of their last eight. Entering play Wednesday, Philadelphia sat in a three-way tie with the Diamondbacks and Padres in the National League Wild Card race. Wednesday’s loss, at least temporarily, dropped them out of a playoff spot.
“Not playing like that, we won’t be [in the race],” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “We’ve got to turn it around. Obviously there’s still plenty of time to do so, but nobody here is happy with the brand of baseball we’re playing right now. So we just need to figure it out, turn it around, and play a lot better here pretty quickly.”
“We’re not going to get any of those eight series back, so there’s no way to look at it other than go forward,” Mattingly said. “Kind of simple as that. You’re not going to look back and say we could’ve won that series, or we should’ve won it, or we haven’t done this since the [All-Star] break. All that’s great to look back, but it’s not going to do us any good to look back and say that. Things that happened behind you aren’t coming back. It’s not going to change. There’s nothing for us to do but move on.”