MILWAUKEE — Zack Wheeler’s 99th pitch on Monday afternoon — a 96.7-mph fastball — was one of the better pitches he fired in a 12-0 win over the Brewers. It would also be his last.
He pumped the fastball past a swinging Omar Narvaez for his ninth strikeout and the final out of the sixth inning before returning to the dugout, where Joe Girardi told him his day was finished.
Girardi pushed Wheeler, the major league leader in innings, for most of the season. But with four weeks remaining in the season, the Phillies are trying to preserve their top pitcher for the stretch run.
They gave Wheeler an extra day of rest by moving his start from Sunday to Monday and made sure to keep him from throwing 100 pitches against the Brewers despite arriving here with a taxed bullpen.
The Phillies expect Zach Eflin to miss the rest of the season and are planning to go with a bullpen game every fifth day. Ranger Suarez is pitching through tightness in his triceps and Aaron Nola has been inconsistent. They can’t afford to lose Wheeler.
So they’ll monitor him this month if that’s what it takes to make sure he can make five more regular-season starts.
Wheeler was excellent Monday as limited the Brewers to five hits and issued no walks after walking four over six innings in his last start. His only real trouble came in the third when Kolten Wong and Jace Paterson both singled with two outs to bring up Christian Yelich.
The Phillies gained a half-game on Atlanta and a game on Cincinnati, pushing them within 1 1/2 games of the idle first-place Braves and two games behind the Reds for the National League’s second wild card.
Wheeler battled Yelich for eight pitches, four of which were fouled off before the at-bat ended with a groundout. A pair of two-out singles was the closest the Brewers could get to touching Wheeler. It was the type of performance the Phillies need five more times before the season is finished.
Everybody homers
The Phillies scored eight runs after Wheeler exited, taking the stress off of the bullpen and proving Girardi correct for not pushing his starter. They homered six times, giving them multiple six-homer games in the same season for the first time in franchise history.
Andrew McCutchen started the seventh with a leadoff homer and Jean Segura capped the seven-run inning with his first career grand slam. The game felt close when Wheeler finished the sixth. An inning later, it was a rout. Brad Miller homered twice and Bryce Harper and Freddy Galvis each homered.
The last homer came off a position player on the mound, but the first three came off Brandon Woodruff, who entered the game with the second-best ERA (2.35) in the majors. There was nothing cheap about those ones.
Galvis the mighty
The Phillies didn’t bring back Galvis in July because of his bat, but they’ll gladly take his recent power surge. Galvis’ homer in the second inning gave him homers in two straight games and three of the last four. The Phils have used Galvis primarily at shortstop since activating him from the injured list in late August, but he started Monday at third base for the second time in four games.
More from Moore
The Phillies bumped Matt Moore from their starting rotation on Sunday when they opted for a bullpen game instead of using him as their fifth starter. He pitched the final two innings of the rout, but perhaps those six outs can provide some confidence that Moore can be of use down the stretch as a left-handed reliever. He struck out the side in the eighth. Hector Neris’ three outs in the seventh carried more pressure as the game was still close, but Moore’s six outs could be big, too.
