Zack Wheeler took the high road, and decided not to rub his strong away game against his former team.
He did not need that. His pitching spoke loud enough.
“I’m not trying to prove anyone wrong,” the former Mets referee said of Zoom after he threw the Phillies into a series of Mets Sunday in Philadelphia, throwing seven strong innings in a 6-2 victory.
He referred to a question, and asked if he had anything to prove to the person, general manager Brodie Van Wagenen, who did not think he was the five-year, $ 118 million dollar deal the Phillies signed him for in the offseason.
Somewhere Wheeler seems worth it. In four starts, he has a 2.81 ERA, while the pitchers brought in to replace him, Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello, have struggled or been injured. With Noah Syndergaard undergoing Tommy John surgery and Marcus Stroman being sacked this season due to COVID-19 concerns, the Mets rotation has become their biggest weakness. That was reinforced on Sunday when the 30-year-old Wheeler shut her down, knocked out four, allowed one run and six hits.
“I thought he was great,” said Phillies manager Joe Girardi.
Porcello, now sporting a hefty 5.76 ERA, faced Wheeler on Sunday, and was tagged for three runs in the sixth inning, causing a precautionary Mets lead to turn into a two-run deficit. Wheeler made sure it came up, pulling the Mets back in order in the seventh and yielding only a two-run Luis Guillorme single opposite field single in an impressive outing.
“My adrenaline was running when I was there, I was excited,” Wheeler said. ‘But now that you’re out, you need to get those nerves fixed and you just remember it’s another game, even if you know those guys there. You stand for your old team. You want to go out and do it right. There is no way around it. “
During his time with the Mets, Wheeler struggled regularly to keep his pitch count down and get deep into games. So far with the Phillies, however, he is at least six innings away three times and they are 3-1 when he grinds the rubber. He will make more contact, knock out fewer hitters – 12 in four starts – but lasts longer.
“That was always what I wanted to do,” he said.
After Wheeler signed with the Phillies in December, there was a rift between him and Van Wagenen. The manager of the Mets started it, saying, ‘The contract and the market he enjoyed was above what our appetite level was. I said that before. He got paid more than we were willing to give him. ”
Wheeler responded by saying that comments “might help me a little.” In February, Wheeler told The Post that he gave the Mets a chance to keep him before signing with the Phillies, but all he heard was “in principle. just crickets. “
It did not surprise him.
“Because they are her,” he said then. “It’s how they roll.”
A day later, Van Wagenen congratulated Wheeler on the contract he received and said he was excited about the pitching staff he had assembled with the Mets. Six months later, the Mets general manager could not possibly feel the same way, given the sad state of his initial rotation.
.
