Wednesday’s matinee at Citi Field was accompanied by trade chatter, with the Mets and Phillies surrounded by questions about new names and faces, potentially ending eras and starting chapters.
Hours after the Mets had sent the majority of 37,647 fans home happy with an 11-2 win, no uniforms had changed on either side, but Zack Wheeler had once again demonstrated the rewards that come with keeping and believing in a promising prospect.
Just over three years after the Mets acquired him from the Giants in exchange for Carlos Beltran, Wheeler (6-8) added another line to a career-best stretch, winning his third straight decision, which improved him to 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA over his past six starts.
Though the 24-year-old found early trouble, running up a high pitch count, Wheeler lasted 6²/₃ innings, surrendering two runs and seven hits while striking out four, improving his ERA to a season-best 3.60.
“You saw a guy battle really without his best command, he had to battle through six innings, just behind the count, kept battling, hung in there and made pitches when he had to make them,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “His stuff is so good. It’s hard to hit. There’s one of the outings we’re going to talk about down the road that, you know what, he didn’t have real good stuff today [but] you looked up and he pitched really good.”
Despite allowing a base runner in each of the first four innings, Wheeler did not allow a run until Ryan Howard’s fifth-inning double, having escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning, with a strikeout of Kyle Kendrick and a fly out from Ben Revere.
After allowing a solo homer to pinch-hitter Jimmy Rollins in the seventh inning, Wheeler retired the next two batters before being removed after 112 pitches.
The former first-round pick lasted at least six innings for the sixth straight start, allowing more than one earned run for the first time in six starts.
“Obviously I didn’t have my best stuff today, so I was just trying to get in and out of there as quick as I could,” Wheeler said. “First couple innings, they had a few things going and I had to get myself out of it, but after that I started to coast a little bit better and hit my pitches more often. … I guess that’s part of maturing.”
Wheeler’s poise at the plate was just as important.
With the Mets trailing 1-0 in the fifth inning and runners on first and second and no outs, Wheeler fouled off two bunt attempts, but recovered to place the third try in fair territory, moving the runners ahead.
When Wheeler next took the mound, the Mets led 4-1, thanks to Daniel Murphy’s three-run homer.
“I don’t know why he didn’t throw another [low fastball] there because that’s a pretty hard place to bunt, but he threw right down the middle and I was like, ‘Thank goodness,’ ” Wheeler said. “I got the job done and it paid off for us.”
So is the Mets’ long-term plan, built around their young arms.