OAKLAND, Calif. — Zack Wheeler wanted to keep going, but the line had been drawn.
After watching the right-hander throw 120 pitches in his previous start, manager Terry Collins brought the hook with two outs in the sixth inning Wednesday. Wheeler was finished after 103 pitches against the Athletics on an afternoon in which he surrendered four runs, two of which were unearned, on four hits and three walks.
The original plan was to stop Wheeler at 100 pitches or fewer, but Collins gave his pitcher the benefit of one last batter and a chance to escape the sixth. Sam Fuld walked, and Wheeler was removed.
“I thought he was good,” Collins said after the Mets’ 8-5 victory. “As we see, when he throws it near the plate, he is tough to hit. There were not a lot of well-hit balls against him, and due to the fact that he threw a lot of pitches in his last outing, we had to watch him close today, but he threw the ball real well.”
Wheeler, who is 6-0 with a 2.40 ERA over his last 10 starts, will get extra rest before his next appearance because of two scheduled off days before his turn in the rotation.
If Wheeler had a cause for disappointment Wednesday, it was the fact he twice allowed runs after the Mets had scored in the top of the inning.
“Every time we score you try to go out there and put up a zero, but it didn’t happen that way today,” Wheeler said. “But we had the bats going all game long and were able to stay ahead of them and pull out the ‘W’.”
By winning his last six decisions, Wheeler (9-8) has moved to the plus column for the first time this season.
“You never want to be 3-8,” he said. “But I try to battle and just give your team a chance to win every time out.
“The past few games I’ve been walking a few more hitters, but other than that it has been pretty good.”