PHILADELPHIA — Zack Wheeler has not looked like Zack Wheeler of late. In his first two outings of the regular season he was unable to pitch past the fifth inning. His velocity was down, which isn’t ideal for a power pitcher who relies primarily on his fastball. The Zack Wheeler that fans are used to seeing can hit 98 mph, 99 mph, or even 100 mph, and do it with control. He can pitch well — and deep — into games. Those two outings were not the Zack Wheeler fans were used to seeing.
So, given that context, Saturday’s game — which the Phillies ended up losing, 5-3, to the Brewers — was an important one for the right-handed pitcher. After a shortened spring training, that was shortened even more after he had a bout with the flu, Wheeler is still in the process of ramping up, which could be why his velocity was down. But Saturday would have been his fifth spring training start — which means that we should be seeing something close to the normal Zack Wheeler, soon. On Saturday, we did.
Wheeler averaged 95.9 mph on the radar gun against the Brewers, after averaging 94.5 mph in his start last week. He mostly cruised through his first four innings of work, allowing two hits and no runs with three strikeouts over that span.
