PHILADELPHIA -- Zack Wheeler wasted no time quashing any potential concerns from his career-high-tying four-homer outing his last time out.
The Phillies right-hander cruised in the early going of Thursday's eventual 6-4 win in the series finale against the Padres at Citizens Bank Park, flashing no-hit stuff for much of the afternoon. He did not allow a hit until the sixth on a day when he simply overpowered San Diego's lineup outside of one mistake in the seventh inning.
With the Phillies leading by three, Wheeler left an 0-2 fastball over the heart of the plate that Manny Machado crushed into the left-center-field seats for a two-run homer. That was the lone blemish for Wheeler, who racked up eight strikeouts while allowing just two runs off two hits over seven innings.
The outing left Wheeler with a 2.31 ERA through eight starts this season. He's completed at least six innings in each of his past seven starts.
After allowing four home runs to the Dodgers on Saturday, Wheeler said his mechanics were just “a little out of whack” for most of that outing.
Safe to say he felt more like himself on Thursday?
“Definitely,” Wheeler said. “It was something just very small -- a lot of times that's what it is. Literally just my step to get my motion going was a little bit too big. … So I just quieted that down and it allowed me to stay over my back leg and be able to drive it through home.”
With everything back in sync, Wheeler retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced, with the only exception being a leadoff walk to Ty France in the top of the second. The Padres didn't record a hit off Wheeler until No. 9 hitter Bryce Johnson flared a one-out single to shallow left field in the sixth. Wheeler quickly erased it by getting Fernando Tatis Jr. to ground into an inning-ending double play just one batter later.
“Zack was really good today,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “He was efficient early. … You always feel confident with him out there.”
Overall, Wheeler's velocity was up across the board for a second straight outing.
He leaned heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it on 56 of his 104 pitches (54%) -- and for good reason. He induced 10 swings and misses with the pitch, while pumping in another nine for called strikes.
The Padres went just 1-for-12 (.083) against Wheeler's four-seamer, with the only hit coming when he missed his spot against Machado. Overall this season, opposing hitters are just 6-for-60 (.100) against Wheeler's four-seamer.
Wheeler struck out Machado on three straight four-seamers in the first inning, then did the same in the fourth. He was one pitch away from doing the same in the seventh, but the ninth straight fastball to Machado ran back a bit too much over the plate.
“Fastball was playing well,” Wheeler said. “A couple them tailed back in. … Manny got me on that one, but I feel like if I would have got that one there -- J.T. [Realmuto] said he should have called a sweeper -- but if I executed that pitch away, I think we would have got him again.”