Wheeler battles, bullpen goes four scoreless as Phillies win rubber match vs. Angels
Final score: Phillies 2, Angels 1
ANAHEIM — The Phillies aren’t sure what they’ll do with their starting rotation. “TBA,” Rob Thomson said Wednesday morning. They could piggyback two pitchers every fifth day. They could even alternate who gets that fifth start each time through the rotation.
Part of the reason they won’t keep a six-man is to preserve the bullpen. Sure, the excellence of the Phillies’ starting rotation means the bullpen doesn’t usually anticipate needing to take down four or five innings in a game anyway. But Wednesday demonstrated why it’s good to have that option.
Zack Wheeler was not at his most dominant — there was traffic on the base paths every inning but the fourth — but he bore down when he needed to. Up 2-1 in the fifth, and a runner on third with no outs via a leadoff double and wild pitch, Wheeler dug deep. Beginning the inning at 88 pitches, and with a bullpen mostly available, plus an off day Thursday, Wheeler emptied the tank and retired the next three Angels to strand the tying run.
His 106th pitch of the day left Luis Rengifo’s bat at 101.2 mph, but it wound up right in second baseman Whit Merrifield’s glove. The bullpen took it from there, with Matt Strahm, Orion Kerkering, José Alvarado and Gregory Soto keeping the Mike-Trout-less L.A. at bay.
It came in heart-stopping fashion. The Angels put runners on the corners with one out in the bottom of the ninth against Soto. He promptly struck out Jo Adell for the second out.
Taylor Ward then lifted a ball to the very back of the warning track in left field, nearly a walk-off three-run homer. Kyle Schwarber, starting in left for the first time this season, caught it to hang on.
The momentum of Tuesday night’s ninth-inning, game-winning rally did not carry over into the finale for the offense. The lineup went scoreless the last seven innings. They struck out an astonishing 18 times, with every starter — plus the lone pinch-hitter, Brandon Marsh — going down on strikes at least once.
They had seven hits. One came from Alec Bohm, extending his streak to 15 games. His average has since dropped back to second at .362, but for one turn through the lineup, Bohm’s .36842 mark ranked first in MLB, less than half a point ahead of Mookie Betts’.
Another came on a two-run single by Schwarber in the second inning. It was the 10th time in the 10-game road trip that the Phillies scored first and the second straight day that Schwarber drove in the first runs of the ballgame. Perhaps it shouldn’t have happened — the ball took a funky bounce over the mound and caught shortstop Zach Neto in between — but it gave the Phillies the lead all the same.
It was all the staff needed. If pitching was the theme of a 19-9 April, the team’s best since an 18-8 mark in 2011, perhaps that makes Wednesday April 31. The characteristic effort secured the series victory in Anaheim, wrapped up a 5-1 West Coast swing and moved the Phillies to 21-11 ahead of a happy cross-country flight home.
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