August 31, 2026
William Liang/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler broke out of his month-long slump with a stellar outing against the Angels.
Maybe the strangest part of the Phillies waltzing through August with the best record in baseball is that ace right-hander Zack Wheeler barely contributed anything positive to it.
The Phillies have won 74 percent of their games this month, but not because of Wheeler. Actually, in spite of him.
Which is really an amazing thing given Wheeler's reputation as one of the sport's most dominant starting pitchers, and that he had carried a 2.12 ERA into the All-Star break.
An angry Wheeler, who believed he had been snubbed by the All-Star selection process, was practically untouchable in his last three starts going into the break, logging a 2.55 ERA and striking out 34 batters in 17.2 innings.
But something happened coming out of the break. In a span of six starts from July 27 to Aug. 24, Wheeler not only didn't resemble his typical self, he actually pitched like one of the sport's worst starters.
While his teammates were surging, Wheeler had pitched to an 8.51 ERA in six starts, with 31 hits allowed and a staggering 16 walks in 24.1 innings. He had pitched into the sixth inning just once, and three times didn't make it past the fourth.
Wheeler's implosion came to a head last Monday against Seattle, when he got knocked around for eight runs on nine hits in 4.0 innings, throwing 103 pitches, looking and sounding completely frustrated in the postgame locker room.
He was fighting himself, looking for answers, but running out of them.
"All I can really throw for a strike – a good, quality strike – is a fastball right now," Wheeler told reporters after the game (h/t NBCSP). "It's not even fully consistent. When you're pitching kind of with one pitch, it's gonna be hard up there."
It was around this time last season when doctors discovered a blood clot above Wheeler's right shoulder, which shut him down in the middle of a Cy Young chase and eventually led to another procedure to treat Thoracic Outlet Syndrome.
Wheeler had insisted in Seattle that he felt healthy, making his meltdowns even more confounding.
"Just became I'm on a rough stretch and I feel fine," he added, still via NBCSP. "You got to really dig in. That's what I'm gonna do tomorrow, talk and try to figure stuff out."
And that's just what he did. After taking a deep dive with Phillies staff into his analytics and biomechanics, Wheeler found something identifiable and correctable.
Following a much more vintage Wheeler outing Sunday in Anaheim to help the Phillies finish a sweep of the Angels, the 36-year-old explained to reporters that he discovered that his glove was "down two more inches" in his previous start and has been "trending that way" for a while.
"They showed me a graph and it's just been going down, down, down," Wheeler explained, again via NBCSP. "So what do we do? Just bring the up front arm up a little bit, and go from there.
"You kinda got sync everything else up off of that, but as long as I get that front arm up, not kind of over-rotating, shooting toward the third base, on deck circle. Obviously, you want to be shooting toward home, so just kind of getting that weight on the back leg and being more direct rather than rotational."
Wheeler said the correction clicked for him in the fourth inning. He needed just 13 pitches to retire the side in order, keeping the game tied at 1-1 until Edmundo Sosa's second homer of the series provided the go-ahead run.
But even before his explanation of the biomechanics findings, Wheeler had said that he was "not totally out of the water yet" and still "grinding" to find the strike zone.
He had opened the game by issuing a leadoff walk, then hit Mike Trout, then allowed another single to immediately confront a bases-loaded, no-out jam. The Angels only managed one run because Wheeler induced cleanup hitter Moises Ballesteros into a double play, followed by a strikeout of Christian Moore.
In the third, Wheeler allowed a leadoff double to Wade Meckler and needed another sensational diving catch from center fielder Derek Hill to escape with the game still knotted at 1-1.
Wheeler needed 108 pitches to get through six against an Angels lineup that ranks among MLB's worst, so his signature efficiency still isn't completely back yet, but it's a step in the right direction.
And it comes at the perfect time.
The Phillies need Zack Wheeler to be himself again coming down the stretch of September.
Kyle Ross/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
The Phillies managed to overcome Wheeler's ineffective month and still swept four of their past five opponents, but in September they'll need the pre-All Star break version of Wheeler to have any chance of unseating the Braves, who lead the NL East by 5.0 games.
The Phillies and Braves are slated for seven games in September, and Wheeler is currently projected to face Atlanta on Saturday in South Philly in the second game of a four-game set.
If nothing changes in the rotation between now and then, Wheeler is also projected to start the regular season finale against the Rays on Sept. 27, a game that could carry playoff seeding implications.
The Phillies have seen each of their five starters thrive at various times this season, some for longer than others, but not all five flourish at the same time. Wheeler was the black sheep of an otherwise outstanding rotation in August.
If he truly has turned the corner, if he can deliver vintage Wheeler outings in September, the Phillies could be in for another banner month, and perhaps even another deep postseason run.
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