PHILADELPHIA -- It's hard to argue that there's a more dominant one-two punch in baseball right now than Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez.
One night after Sánchez extended his scoreless streak to 37 2/3 innings, Wheeler turned in his second straight scoreless outing on Saturday night against the Guardians at Citizens Bank Park. After waiting out a one-hour, 56-minute rain delay before the first pitch, Wheeler allowed just two hits over six scoreless innings, fueling Philly's 3-0 win over Cleveland, to lower his season ERA to 1.67 in six starts. (Sánchez has a National League-leading 1.62 ERA in 11 starts.)
That continued a remarkable return to the rotation for Wheeler, whose season debut was delayed until April 25 after undergoing thoracic outlet decompression surgery last September. It's taken him less than a month to quash any concerns about whether he'd be able to be his usual self on the mound post-surgery.
Speaking of the past month, take a look at what the Phillies' co-aces have done so far in May:
• May 1 (Wheeler): 6 IP, 1 ER
• May 5 (Sanchez): 8 IP, 0 ER
• May 6 (Wheeler): 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER
• May 10 (Sanchez): 7 IP, 0 ER
• May 12 (Wheeler): 7 1/3 IP, 1 ER
• May 16 (Sanchez): 9 IP, 0 ER
• May 17 (Wheeler): 7 IP, 0 ER
• Friday (Sanchez): 8 IP, 0 ER
• Saturday (Wheeler): 6 IP, 0 ER
• TOTAL: 5 ER in 64 2/3 IP
That’s good for a 0.70 combined ERA across their nine starts in May. That, of course, includes a combined 30 scoreless innings their last two turns through the rotation.
Obviously that’s about as much as you could possibly ask for from your top two starters, but that production has been all the more beneficial given the backend of the rotation.
Aaron Nola has struggled to a 6.04 ERA through 10 starts -- and he’s pitched into the sixth inning in only three of those 10 outings. Andrew Painter, meanwhile, has a 5.77 ERA, and while he’s pitched better in his past two outings, the Phillies have lifted him at fewer than 70 pitches in each of those starts.
With the bullpen being asked to compensate for the back end of the rotation of late, the consistency from Wheeler and Sánchez has not only produced its share of victories, but it’s also prevented the Phillies’ relief corps from getting overworked.