Wheeler looks more like old self in first win since July

ANAHEIM -- Zack Wheeler was still not quite the Zack Wheeler of old on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium.

Still, he certainly took a step in the right direction.

Wheeler once again battled some of his ongoing command problems in the first inning, and again in the sixth. In between, however, he was mostly just, well, Wheeler.

By the end of it all, he had pitched six innings for the first time since July 21 -- and he had limited the Angels to only one run. Wheeler did issue three more walks, including two of his final three hitters, but he buckled down to finish off the sixth with his sixth strikeout of the game.

Moments later, Edmundo Sosa -- the hero from Friday night -- led off the top of the seventh with a home run to give the Phillies the lead en route to a 5-2 victory. It marked Wheeler’s first win since July 12, snapping a streak of seven consecutive starts without a victory -- his longest as a Phillie.

It looked early on as if Wheeler -- who entered with a 9.27 ERA over his past five full starts -- was once again in for a long afternoon. He issued a leadoff walk to Wade Meckler, then hit Mike Trout with a sinker that got away from him. Vaughn Grissom then singled to load the bases with nobody out, but Wheeler got a double play and a strikeout to hold the Halos to a single run.

Wheeler settled in to retire 14 of the next 17 batters -- while walking none of them -- until hitting a bit of a wall in the sixth. After getting two quick outs to begin the frame, Wheeler walked 23-year-old Christian Moore, who entered the day with a 34% strikeout rate in his young career.

Wheeler then issued a four-pitch walk to Josh Lowe that prompted a visit from pitching coach Caleb Cotham. Despite Wheeler's pitch count climbing, interim manager Don Mattingly gave the veteran every opportunity to end his outing on a high note -- and he rewarded his skipper's trust.

Wheeler fell behind the next batter 3-1 while extending his streak to 13 consecutive pitches outside the zone (including one swinging strike and one foul ball). He then pounded the zone with three straight breaking balls, the last of which Jose Siri whiffed at for strike three.

It ultimately took 108 pitches, but six innings of one-run ball is an encouraging sign from Wheeler.