Zack Wheeler struck out the side in the first and reached his 2,000th strikeout on a high fastball to Brice Turang. He would strike out eight more batters as the night went on in a pretty good effort. Brandon Marsh smacked a home run off Dustin May and no one needed a home run as much as him. The Phillies are playing for a postseason spot and for the seeding in it, one game back of both the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs.
On the other hand, it’s spring training for the Brewers. They tried Dustin
May and Kyle Harrison in short bursts and had Colton Gordon, a left-handed arm, making his first appearance with the club after his last two seasons with the Astros as a swingman with a 5.95 ERA. They’re going to get a top-two seed in the National League and are preparing for a bye.
In the bottom of the eighth, the game was tied at three. Colton Gordon threw four scoreless innings against the Phillies and entered the eighth tied and all of the sudden pitching leverage.
The Brewers let him start and finish the inning, no matter what happened. He got the first two outs almost immediately with a Trea Turner pop out and a Bryce Harper groundout.
Luis Arraez gave the Phillies a little life, taking a hanging slider in front of Luis Lara in right field for a single. On an 0-2 count, Alec Bohm took a well located changeup to left field on a soft line drive that put runners on first and second with two outs.
There was a mound visit and a little bullpen action but the Brewers were determined to get Gordon through the inning, or they just don’t really care how these games go.
On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Bryson Stott flailed a blooper right in front of Garrett Mitchell in center field, a throw that went right off Bohm’s foot and ricocheted into foul territory to bring home a second run.
Brandon Marsh, starting to feel himself, smacked a first pitch fastball from an exhausted Gordon off the right field wall for a third run in the inning.
With a Jhoan Duran save, that included a Brewers run on a soft blooper from Luis Lara, the Phillies brought their magic number for a postseason spot down to two games. The Arizona Diamondbacks are up 3-0 against the Colorado Rockies at the time of this writing.
They barely beat a Brewers team that was trying things but a win is a win. It’s a bigger one when milestones were hit and cold streaks were snapped.
Zack Wheeler’s first seven batters all went back to the dugout. His fastball was as alive as ever and it was maybe the single best splitter he’s had in a start all season. Wheeler is not the same pitcher he was on the New York Mets, who could throw 98-100 with a nasty slider but struggled with getting hit hard. He is not even the same pitcher since joining the Phillies, when his talent realized into a 2021 season that finished second in the Cy Young voting.
He still has a fantastic fastball, combining a developed low arm slot with ride, good velocity, and excellent command. He developed the sweeper in 2023, his now-primary breaking pitch to right-handed batters. The splitter was his next trick the following season. It went with a tight cutter, sinker, and curveball that give him one of the best pitch mixes in the sport.
The perfect game and no hitter ended in the top of the fourth after an Alec Bohm double gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead in the third. Bryson Stott couldn’t handle a short pop-up that went right behind him and off his twisting glove and body that was ruled a single. After a Jackson Chourio strikeout, Brice Turang punched a splitter right past Bohm’s first base mitt into right field to put runners on first and third with one out. William Contreras got the job done with a sacrifice flyball that put the Brewers on the board.
Soft contact and the Brewers’ speed ruined a special Zack Wheeler night. He struck out two more batters after allowing that first run and got a pair of flyouts while the Phillies offense was stumbling.
In the sixth, David Hamilton flailed a soft line drive into field to put the speedy third baseman on first base with no outs. After a Garrett Mitchell lineout, Hamilton stole second base with Chourio up, who later worked a walk to put runners on first and second with one out.
With a full count to Brice Turang, Wheeler threw a nasty splitter to get him swinging but Hamilton and Chourio worked a double steal with Stott not able to apply the tag on a great JT Realmuto throw to third.
On the next pitch, William Contreras hit another soft sinker to center field that tied the game at three.
The seventh and eighth innings featured some potential ideas for how Don Mattingly will navigate the bullpen. Alex McFarlane came out for the seventh inning, faced the bottom three in the Brewers order but returned for the eighth for two more batters. He retired all five hitters he faced and Mattingly brought José Alvarado out to face Turang.
Seeing McFarlane be able to work 97-99 in that spot, knowing he would have to do an up-down, is good to see as the Phillies will probably need it for the playoffs, however far they go. They haven’t tried Jhoan Duran yet but it’s also fair to have him save some bullets for later.
The Phillies had their ace dominate but a few soft hits dampened the box score. Brandon Marsh picked up two extra-base hits. Alex McFarlane faced five batters. The Brewers probably didn’t try very hard to win this game.
