PHOENIX — Before one of the biggest starts of his life, Zack Wheeler plopped on a black leather couch in the middle of the visitors clubhouse at Chase Field. Wheeler likes company in the hours that precede a start. On Saturday afternoon, Matt Strahm joined Wheeler, and they watched college football together for about 40 minutes. The rest of the team was on the field for batting practice, trying to ignore the momentum that conspired against them. The Phillies had suffered back-to-back heartbreaking defeats in the National League Championship Series.
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But, in Wheeler’s world, Alabama was making a second-half statement against Tennessee.
“We were just talking about the game,” Strahm said. “Just a normal day for Zack Wheeler.”
After he authored one of the best postseason starts in Phillies history to secure a 6-1 win over the Diamondbacks, Wheeler scoffed at the idea that Strahm had really paid enough attention to the football. “I don’t think he was watching it,” Wheeler said. “He was nose-deep in his phone.” Wheeler notices everything.
Except, often, he doesn’t show it. “I don’t do a lot of scouting report myself,” Wheeler said the day before his Game 5 masterpiece. This has become part of Wheeler lore inside the Phillies clubhouse. There is a meeting before every game with that day’s starter, the team’s two catchers, and a bunch of coaches. Wheeler defers to catcher J.T. Realmuto.
“Half the time,” Realmuto said, “it’s like, ‘Is he even listening to us right now?’”
But something happened on Saturday. Wheeler was done watching football. The pitcher’s meeting started. “He walked in,” Realmuto said, “and you could tell there was a lot of weight on his shoulders today.” Wheeler asked about how to attack a specific hitter. He asked about the plan to get someone out a second time.
“He was more locked in,” Realmuto said. “He was engaged.”
The Phillies needed Wheeler on Saturday night like they have never needed him before. They were not going to use Craig Kimbrel or Orion Kerkering. Many of their best relievers had pitched the previous two days. They mapped various scenarios and many of them included Ranger Suárez, the presumptive Game 7 starter, getting the final three outs in Game 5. If José Alvarado pitched in Game 5, he might not be available for Game 6. It was paramount that Wheeler pitched deep into Game 5 because so much depended on it.
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To his teammates, that was beautiful. He was the man for this moment.
“If you’re walking into the clubhouse, you can’t tell what day it is for him on his rotation,” Strahm said. “The only thing on start days that gives it away: He stays in his street clothes a little longer. But that’s literally the only difference in him.”
“That’s his routine,” said Jeff Hoffman, who relieved Wheeler with a scoreless eighth inning Saturday. “Every single time. He’s in street clothes until it’s time to go get on the training table. It’s really cool to see guys that have done it for as long as he has, still having that same routine.”
As Hoffman witnessed it this summer, he needed to check with others who had played with Wheeler before: Has this guy always been like this? Yes, they told Hoffman. Wheeler invited conversation even on the days he was scheduled to pitch.
“It’s incredible,” Hoffman said. “That’s why he’s good as he is. There’s so many constants throughout his day. Then he goes out, and throwing gems is another constant. It’s just what he does.”
Wheeler fired 99 pitches in seven innings. The only run he allowed came in the seventh inning when Alek Thomas ambushed a first-pitch sweeping slider. Wheeler caught a new ball from the home-plate umpire and waited for Thomas to circle the bases. Then, he recorded the next three outs on six pitches. He showed zero emotion as he walked toward the dugout.
He had done it. The Phillies can win the pennant Monday night at Citizens Bank Park. They survived the desert. Wheeler threw first-pitch strikes to 21 of the 28 batters he faced. He never ceded command. He plundered Arizona’s momentum with every scoreless inning.
“I mean, you can’t say enough about him,” Bryce Harper said. “I told him after the game, ‘You’re one of the best pitchers I’ve ever played with, man.’ I’ve played with a lot of good ones, and he’s easily top three.
“It’s incredible what he does. It’s so much fun to watch. I love playing behind him, and it’s incredible. He’s legit, man.”
Wheeler has struck out 34 batters and walked two in these playoffs. His 0.73 WHIP is the lowest in any 10-start span in postseason history. His next start might be Friday — in Game 1 of the World Series. He is reaching postseason heights this October that few have achieved.
“It’s cool,” Wheeler said. “It’s special. I take pride in it. There’s been a lot of great pitchers that pitched in the postseason. A bunch of them probably have more innings and body of work than I do, but I try to do the best I can with what I have.”
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He didn’t have his best command Saturday night, but he had a plan. He needed 22 pitches in the first inning and stranded runners on the corners. Wheeler, along with Realmuto, started to see patterns in Arizona’s plan against them. His stuff was good enough to adopt a simple strategy to accomplish related goals: keep the Diamondbacks off the board and Wheeler in the game.
“Just go right after them,” Wheeler said.
How determined was Wheeler to pitch seven innings?
“Very,” Realmuto said. “You could just see it from pitch one. He was trying to attack the strike zone.”
“He gave us exactly what we needed with where our pen was at,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Wheeler did it his way; 55 of his 99 pitches were four-seam fastballs. The Diamondbacks swung and missed at 18 of his 99 pitches. He fired eight hard sliders and five of them were whiffs or called strikes. He struck out Pavin Smith — one of the toughest hitters against the Phillies in this series — twice on sliders.
“Which was big,” Realmuto said.
Wheeler started the seventh inning at 92 pitches. “I was going right back out there,” Wheeler said. There wasn’t much of a discussion with Thomson because everyone in the dugout knew.
“He’s a horse,” said Strahm, who got the final out Saturday. “I believe Zack Wheeler is in the definition of ace.”
He submitted seven more innings in a pressure-filled Game 5. All of the Phillies’ big guys did big things to wrestle control of the series from the Diamondbacks. Realmuto, Harper and Kyle Schwarber homered. Harper stole home. The defense behind Wheeler was crisp. “It’s probably the best they played behind me all year,” Wheeler said. The Phillies had wilted the first two nights here, then rose to another October moment.
“We have confidence in ourselves,” Realmuto said. “If we told ourselves in spring training, ‘Hey, we have to win two out of three to get to the World Series’ — we’d take that every time. So we just had to forget the last two days. Put our mindset to something a little more positive.”
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They had Wheeler. That was enough. But Realmuto knew when he returned to the clubhouse after taking batting practice. Wheeler asked questions. The laid-back ace had a different edge.
He was listening. He’s always listening; he just doesn’t want anyone to know it.
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(Top photo of Zack Wheeler: Harry How / Getty Images)
