PITTSBURGH -- Several hours before Sunday’s 6-0 win against the Pirates, Phillies manager Don Mattingly was asked the key to success against right-hander Paul Skenes. The skipper didn’t hesitate and mentioned that his own pitcher, right-hander Zack Wheeler, needed to be just as good as Skenes.
“Honestly, you have to stay in the game with [Skenes]. You can’t give him a three- or four-run cushion,” Mattingly said. “You can’t beat this guy up. It happened maybe once this year. You can’t count on anything like that. Your starter has to be good. We have the right guy.”
Wheeler turned out to be the right guy, outdueling Skenes by a long mile in a 6-0 victory at PNC Park. The game-time temperature was 81 degrees, and the weather was just right for Wheeler, who pitched seven scoreless innings, allowed four hits and struck out eight. He retired the first five batters he faced before Konnor Griffin reached base on an infield single in the second. Pittsburgh had a runner in scoring position just once against Wheeler, in the sixth, when Brandon Lowe doubled with two outs.
“Watching [Wheeler] is a good feeling,” Mattingly said after the game.
To show that he has recovered from thoracic outlet decompression surgery, Wheeler’s fastball was clocked as high as 97.8 mph and lowered his ERA to 1.99. Everything is trending in the right direction from a medical standpoint.
“I felt good today. It was nice to have the weather. It’s the kind of weather that I like: the heat and all that stuff. I started off the game ready to go,” Wheeler said. “[Skenes] has good stuff every game. When I was a younger guy, you faced the top-tier guys. [Max] Scherzer, all those types of guys. You had to step up your game. [Skenes] is one of the best pitchers in the game, if not the best. You have to step it up, match it or do better. That was my goal going out there. Our hitters stepped up and scored some runs.”
Pirates manager Don Kelly saw electric stuff from Wheeler and noticed his velocity was trending upward.
“Wheeler kept it on the edges [of the plate],” Kelly said. “Velo was up -- and it was up considering what we had seen in recent starts -- but back to where he typically throws in the 97-98 [mph] range. He was mixing in the offspeed pitches, the split-change and the slider. He just does a great job, and the angle is so different, too, and what he creates off the mound.”
Skenes, on the other hand, was out of the game with no outs in the sixth inning. At first, it looked like he would dominate the Phillies after he struck out the side in the opening frame, but Philadelphia gave Wheeler the run support he needed starting in the fifth. Adolis García scored the first run of the game on a groundout by Justin Crawford. Trea Turner followed and singled to right, scoring J.T. Realmuto.
Skenes couldn’t get anybody out in the next frame. Bryce Harper led off with a home run. After he allowed a single to Alex Bohm and a double to Brandon Marsh, Skenes was removed from the game in favor of Isaac Mattson, who allowed a two-run double to Bryson Stott.
“We caught some mistakes. We got a little momentum, put some pressure on him,” Turner said about Skenes. “With good starting pitchers, you have to get them in the stretch and make them work a little bit. You try to take advantage of that when you can. We used that momentum to our advantage.”
Mattingly thought the lineup did a nice job of battling throughout the game.
“The first time through the lineup, [Skenes] was getting us, but we were still fighting him for pitches, not giving him too many quick outs. That was good, and then Wheels kept shutting it down,” he said.
Philadelphia swept the three-game series to move a game over .500 (24-23). Not bad considering the Phillies were 9-19 when they named Mattingly their interim manager on April 28.
“We feel good. This is what we knew we were capable of,” Turner said. “We didn’t want, obviously, the start like we had. We are playing good baseball. We’ll focus on who is in front of us. We have a lot of baseball left. We got to keep playing good team ball and stacking up wins and see where it ends up at the end of the year.”