Former Mets Pitcher Zack Wheeler Continues To Remind Old Team Of What Could've Been
Former Met Zack Wheeler just keeps haunting his old team.
And on Sunday, Wheeler tossed a complete game two-hitter to help the Phillies cap off a three game sweep of the Mets to take a 2.5 game lead in the NL East.
"I think I’ll always have that little chip on my shoulder," said Wheeler of beating the Mets, the team he spent the first seven seasons of his big-league career with.
After allowing a leadoff double to Brandon Nimmo to start the game, Wheeler settled in to retire the next 22 batters in a row, before issuing a one out walk in the top of the eighth.
Ironically, Wheeler became the first Phillies pitcher to retire 22 straight hitters since the late, great Roy Halladay did it in his no-hitter back in May 29, 2010. Why is this ironic might you ask? Because Wheeler accomplished this feat on the day the Phillies held a pregame ceremony to officially retire Halladay's number.
The Mets did not get their second-and-final hit of the contest until Nimmo recorded a single, his second hit of the day, in the top of the ninth.
Wheeler breezed through this outing, while recording 11 strikeouts along the way. The right-hander also threw a healthy diet of fastballs in the upper-90's and even hit 100 mph, which was his highest velocity on a pitch this season.
And the Mets' offense, which has struggled to hit fastballs this year, couldn't catch up.
"Zack (Wheeler) is a great pitcher," said Mets manager Luis Rojas after the game. "He is a better pitcher now than when he was with the Mets. He kept throwing fastballs and we were late on those fastballs."
For those who are unfamiliar with the history portion of this story, Wheeler was a top prospect, who spent eight years in the Mets' organization (2011-19), but missed two full seasons (2015-16) after undergoing Tommy John surgery during spring training back in 2015.
Once Wheeler was finally able to overcome his injury woes, he flipped the switch, emerging as one of the top pitchers in MLB from June of 2018-September 2019.
During this two-year span, Wheeler produced a 23-15 record to go along with a 3.65 ERA and 374 strikeouts.
This set him up for a big payday following the 2019 season, but the Mets' previous regime did not even attempt to re-sign him to a long-term deal.
Not only that, but former general manager Brodie Van Wagenen basically said that Wheeler wasn't worth the five-year, $118 million contract he received from the Phillies.
However, since signing with Philadelphia, Wheeler has continued to pitch like one of the best starters in all of baseball.
After Sunday's victory, Wheeler is now 10-6 on the season with a 2.41 ERA. His numbers have been so good that they've even put him into the Cy Young conversation as well.
To make matters worse, Wheeler has dominated the Mets since going to their NL East rivals. In four starts against the Amazins' this season, Wheeler is 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA and 33 strikeouts across 29.1 innings.
And today was no different, as Wheeler's latest gem pushed the Mets all the way back to third-place in the division, as a result of victories from the Phillies and Atlanta Braves.
With Jacob deGrom (right elbow inflammation) out indefinitely for the Mets, their pitching staff has struggled with an ERA north of five since the All-Star break.
Although it was the Wilpon regime that made the colossal blunder to let Wheeler walk, It seems as though every time he pitches against the Mets, everyone is left wondering of what could've, and probably should've been had he remained in orange and blue.
Instead, the Mets are stuck watching him dominate for their division rivals, who just stole first-place from them over the weekend.
