Ten wins, one loss, then a wall
A 2.13 ERA at the All-Star break. Zack Wheeler was 10-1 and running away with the National League Cy Young conversation, and his last outing before the break read like a closing argument: six innings, two hits, 10 strikeouts.
Then everything stopped. Four decisions since the break, four losses. He sits at 10-5 and his ERA has climbed to 3.40, which for most starters would be a fine season and for this one reads like a collapse.
Seattle was the bottom of it. Eight earned runs, nine hits, four home runs, five walks, and he barely got through the fourth. The Phillies lost 9-2. Nothing else he has thrown this year comes close.
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“I just need to reset and figure it out”
Wheeler will not blame his body. “I am healthy, strong, everything is there,” the right-hander said. “So I don’t know. I just need to reset and figure it out.”
His own diagnosis is narrower, and more worrying. “The only thing I can really get in the zone right now, a real quality pitch, is my fastball. And even that is not fully consistent. When you are throwing one pitch, it gets really tough at this level.”
There is history here. Wheeler’s 2025 ended early with venous thoracic outlet syndrome and a blood clot in his right shoulder. He came back and pitched four excellent months, which is why the last few weeks have caught Philadelphia off guard.
Six losses, all of them close, all of them Anaheim’s
The Phillies landed in Anaheim on Sunday with a sweep on the table. Waiting for them were the Los Angeles Angels, losers of six straight and tied with Colorado for the worst record in baseball.
The margins are what sting. Every one of those six defeats came by two runs or fewer, and twice the Angels carried a lead into the ninth. Friday ended when Edmundo Sosa hit a two-out pinch-hit grand slam for a 5-3 Philadelphia win. Saturday went 10 innings before Los Angeles gave it up 4-2.
The matchup favours Wheeler on paper. He is 3-0 with a 2.81 ERA in three career starts against the Angels. Across from him stood Yusei Kikuchi at 0-4 with a 6.25 ERA, pitching for the second time since a four-month absence with left shoulder inflammation. His fastball touched 96 mph in that first game back, slightly harder than before he went down.
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