Zack Wheeler’s return has been everything for which the Philadelphia Phillies could have hoped.
However, Wheeler will face a major challenge Saturday when the host Phillies try to snap the Cleveland Guardians’ seven-game winning streak.
In the first game of the weekend series, Cleveland emerged with a 1-0 victory as Kyle Manzardo belted an opposite-field, pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning against Philadelphia’s hard-throwing closer Jhoan Duran.
“Any time you’re coming off the bench, especially against a closer that’s throwing 100 (mph), just making sure I get that foot down because I hadn’t had previous at-bats to test timing,” Manzardo said.
Manzardo’s blast capped off an exciting pitchers’ duel between Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams and Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez, both of whom logged eight scoreless innings.
“What a beautiful game,” Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt said. “If you like pitching, you would have really liked tonight’s game. Sanchez, that’s special. Gavin matched him inning-for-inning.”
On Saturday, Wheeler (3-0, 1.99 ERA) will attempt to duplicate the efforts of Williams and Sanchez as he makes his sixth start since returning from a blood clot in his shoulder.
The veteran right-hander has been particularly strong in May with a 3-0 record and 1.69 ERA in four outings. Most recently, Wheeler yielded just four hits over seven scoreless innings in a 6-0 win over Paul Skenes and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“(Skenes) is one of the best pitchers in the game, if not the best,” Wheeler said. “You have to step it up, match it or do better. That was my goal going out there.”
Wheeler has a 1-2 record with a 1.42 ERA in three lifetime starts against Cleveland. His counterpart on Saturday, Slade Cecconi (3-4, 5.16) has made two career appearances — one start — and is 0-1 versus Philadelphia, allowing three runs in six innings overall.
Cecconi has had a rocky season, but he has been much better of late with a 2-0 record and a 2.17 ERA in his past three starts. He allowed two runs in 7 1/3 innings Monday against the Detroit Tigers.
“He’s a tireless worker,” Vogt said. “Slade’s always trying to make the adjustments to get back to being who he is and the best version of him. The velo’s been ticking up. He was a little down today from where it was his last couple starts, but he also had spin.”
Cleveland, which has won 10 of its past 11 games, has allowed only three runs in its last three games.
“We don’t even think about winning streaks. We play game to game,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “We want to win series, yes, but we want to win every single game. We have 162 games to prepare for the playoffs. Our goal is to win at the end of October.”
Meanwhile, the Phillies have lost three in a row following a stretch of eight wins in nine games.
“Well obviously when you get a game like that, you think you’re going to win,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “But their guy was pretty good too.”
–Field Level Media
