WASHINGTON — Zack Wheeler can feel the burn of a long season, but insists that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
“I’m a little tired,” the Mets rookie said before his team beat the Nationals 3-2 last night. “My velocity has dropped a little, obviously, [but] I’m learning to pitch at that level so next year when I come back and my velocity is good to go back up, I’m hoping I pick up where I am right now, command-wise.”
Wheeler may pass a milestone of sorts tonight when he faces the Nationals: The right-hander has pitched 145 innings combined between Triple-A Las Vegas and the Mets this season, four short of his career high, established last year.
The Mets expect Wheeler to approach 180 innings overall before receiving a late-September shutdown. Along the way, there is the expectation he will continue to pitch at a high level.
“I think he’s found the strike zone,” pitching coach Dan Warthen said, assessing Wheeler’s growth since his June 18 arrival. “He’s reasonably tired, so we’re not seeing his high-end velocity, but we’re seeing consistent velocity from him.”
That consistent velocity has fallen in the 93-96 mph range — still good enough to overpower major league hitters.
Wheeler, 6-3 with a 3.42 ERA in 13 starts, compares how he is pitching lately to the manner in which he was performing for Las Vegas in late May, before collarbone soreness forced him to miss a start. Fatigue has been the common thread.
“I was telling [Warthen] the other day that before I missed that start in Vegas when I had the collarbone thing, leading up to that, the three games were the best three games I pitched because I wasn’t overthrowing, because my shoulder was kind of sore,” Wheeler said. “I was just out there and like, ‘Get quick outs and get out of there.’
“Now that it’s later in the season, my velocity is not up like I want it, I’m out there and like, ‘Let’s get quick outs because I can’t throw it by you.’ I’ve just got to pitch. You learn how to pitch with that and hopefully it carries over into next season.”
* If David Wright is “lucky,” according to manager Terry Collins, he will have a chance to DH in a minor league rehab game on Monday. Wright reported to Port St. Lucie yesterday for rehab on his strained right hamstring.