Phillies pitcher Wheeler delivers another high-quality starter with precision control and a season-high average speed

Zack Wheeler continued the Iron Man rhythm — he started 32 games three times in the last four years and made his 10th appearance of the season at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night, scoring just three hits in six games without conceding a run to lead the Phillies to a 5-2 win over the Pirates and hold Sunday's sweep into their hands. After sending six strikeouts and one guarantee in this game, Wheeler continued to lead the National League pitchers with a strong performance of 5 wins and 1 loss and a defense rate of 2.67.

Rob Thomson, the head coach of the Phillies native, commented: "All the balls are sharp, and the ratio of good and bad shots is perfect. It's the same performance as his last 20 starts – just use the same compliments. Wheeler is currently second in the Nations League with a bWAR of 2.0 (behind teammates Jesús Luzado/Jesús Luzardo's 2.6) and third with a fWAR of 1.5 (behind the Giants' Logan Webb/Logan Webb's 2.1 and Lusado's 1.9).

After this game, Wheeler extended his clean run streak to 16 innings and led the National League with a 0.89 percentage of bases over per inning (WHIP). Its 32.8% strikeout rate, 4.9% delivery rate, 6.66 strikeout delivery ratio and 30.6% swing rate all hit career highs. The secret lies in the unprecedented aggressiveness of the good ball – 54.5 percent of the best balls are bowled well above the career average of 50.1 percent.

"There was no deliberate change of strategy," Wheeler explains, "and it was natural to shoot well when you were in good possession. Although he received a few home runs as a result, he found a balance between gains and losses due to the reduction of clearance and the increase of strikeouts. "

Wheeler's four-seam speedball averaged 96.6 mph (up 1.1 mph from the season average) and broke 98 mph six times in the first game, including a 98.8 mph speedball setting the fastest regular season record since September 21, 2022. The average speed of the ball was 96.2 mph (1.7 mph above the season average). "The first game was a blast," Wheeler admits.

Back-to-back strikeouts from Oneil Cruz (97.6 mph with a 97.6 mph strikeout) and Andrew McCutchen (97.9 mph four-seam speedball) set the tone. Second baseman Bryson Stott (2 hits in 5 hits and 3 home runs in the game) exclaimed: "When he was in top form, the ball seemed to burst out of his fingertips. "

Wheeler has kept all six lanes above 9.9 percent this season: four-stitch speedball (41.9 percent), sweep ball (12.7 percent), reach ball (12.5 percent), finger cross ball (11.7 percent), carter ball (11.4 percent) and speed ball (9.9 percent). Except for the stretch ball, the batting rate of the rest of the ball was less than 0.233.

"Carter's inside corner control still needs to be polished," Wheeler said to himself, "but the outside corner attack on the left side works well." Stott reveals his strategy: "Top pitchers will reserve one or two lanes for the first two rounds and suddenly come out on the third round – like using a knuckle ball with a carter or a slider to disrupt the rhythm. "

With this victory, Wheeler's back-to-back high-quality starters injected a boost into the Playoffs.