Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler has won 109 games in his major league career, but not one of those has come against the Toronto Blue Jays.
He’ll try to change that Sunday afternoon when the host Phillies go for a sweep of the three-game series.
Wheeler (6-2, 2.85 ERA) is 0-2 with a 4.36 ERA in six career starts against Toronto.
The 2024 National League Cy Young Award runner-up comes into the game off a no decision in Philadelphia’s 4-3, 11-inning victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday. He did earn praise from manager Rob Thomson, however, after allowing one run on three hits and one walk over six innings while striking out seven.
“He pitched great,” Thomson said. “Velocity was up. I thought he was fantastic.”
Wheeler was making his first start since a 9-3 loss against Atlanta on May 29 after going on paternity leave. His final strikeout against the Cubs was his 1,000th as a member of the Phillies.
Philadelphia recorded an 8-0 victory in the series opener on Friday and a 3-2 triumph on Saturday. Max Kepler broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning on Saturday with his eighth home run of the season.
Kepler, who began June going 1-for-18, is 4-for-13 with two doubles and two homers in his past four games to lift his average to .214.
“Baseball comes with a lot of doubt,” Kepler said. “It’s a mental game. You fail the majority of the time. So if you overthink like me, it can sometimes spiral a little bit and you can find a dark space. But as of right now, I’m leaning on the guys on this team that really uplift me. I’m just looking forward and believing in my work off the field, and believing in myself.”
“Hopefully he’s turned the corner here a little bit,” Thomson said. “And he’s going to be getting some consistent at-bats, because we’re going to be facing a lot of righties here coming up. He looks good right now.”
One of those righties is Kepler’s old teammate with the Minnesota Twins, Jose Berrios (2-2, 3.38), who gets the start Sunday for the Blue Jays.
Berrios, who is 1-2 with a 5.82 ERA in four career starts against Philadelphia, has been sensational in his past three starts. He has allowed one run and 10 hits over 18 2/3 innings with six walks and 15 strikeouts.
Berrios didn’t figure in the decision in his last start Monday, a 5-4 win in 10 innings at St. Louis, despite hurling 6 2/3 shutout innings. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out one.
“He’s been like that a lot of his career, really,” Toronto manager John Schneider said. “The poster boy for being a consistent major league starter.”
Berrios also didn’t figure in the decision in a June 4 start against the Phillies in Toronto when he allowed one run — a second-inning home run to Nick Castellanos — on four hits over six innings while striking out five.
Toronto had a streak of five straight series wins snapped by the Phillies. Despite the two losses, the Blue Jays are still 12-4 over their past 16 games.
–Field Level Media
