PHILADELPHIA — For those Phillies fans who might have optimistically thought the sight of starting pitcher Kyle Gibson pitching on Wednesday in San Diego might have indicated a possible, quicker-than-scheduled return of Zack Wheeler to the mound this weekend in the National League Championship Series … well, think again.
Asked for a second time in two days whether Game 1 winner Wheeler might be available on only three full days’ rest and be on the Citizens Bank Park mound for Game 4 Saturday night, manager Rob Thomson had the answer out almost before the question was completed.
“No chance, no,” Thomson said Thursday. There wouldn’t seem to be a need to elaborate, since an NLCS schedule change this season essentially would forbid a team to start a pitcher three times even if a seventh game were needed. Though there was an off day Thursday after the teams traveled back from San Diego, there is no off/travel day early next week should the series need to move back to San Diego for a sixth (Monday night) and perhaps a seventh game (Tuesday) there.
Thus, Wheeler, who allowed all of one Padres hit over seven innings and used just 83 pitches to do so in the Phils’ 2-0 Game 1 win Tuesday afternoon, likely won’t be back on the hill until Game 5 Sunday. Until then, they will count on Ranger Suarez Friday night for Game 3 to try to wipe away the memories of blowing a four-run lead with Aaron Nola on the mound in Game 2.
But what of that follow-up on Sunday?
Gibson, an up-and-down No. 4 starter all season, hadn’t pitched since Oct. 1, when he allowed seven earned runs in six innings amid a brutal, 13-4 loss at Nationals Park. With more than two weeks of rest and celebrations behind him, he logged 1.1 innings, allowing one hit and a walk and getting one strikeout against the Padres Wednesday in their 8-5 win to even the series.
That little bit of a work leaves him as one of the candidates to be the Phillies’ starter in what could be a critical Game 4 Sunday.
“It depends on tomorrow,” Thomson said with a reference to Game 3. “You can figure it out. It’s either going to be (Noah) Syndergaard, Gibson, or (Bailey) Falter, I would think.”
Syndergaard, no longer the lights-out fireballer he was with the Mets, joined the Phillies at the trade deadline and went 5-2 with a 4.12 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 10 appearances, nine of them starts. In the NLDS against the Braves, he pitched one inning of relief before starting Game 4 last Saturday, pitching but three innings of what became an 8-3 Phillies win.
If he were to get the nod again to pitch a Game 4 against the Padres, it would likely be a short outing to set the table for what for now is a well rested Phillies bullpen, one that for now has recent No. 5 starter Falter sitting idle without a postseason appearance, and starter turned reliever Zach Eflin needing work, among others.
But then, the ‘pen would be well rested only with a strong Suarez outing in Game 3. He lasted but three innings in his last regular season start, a 10-0 loss to the Astros the day after a playoff-clinching party went deep into the Houston night. Then in the NLDS, Suarez went but 3.1 innings in what became a 7-6 Game 1 win over the Braves.
“I feel good; I feel pretty strong,” Suarez said through a team translator Thursday. “I feel fresh. Like I said before, all I want to do tomorrow is be better than my last time out and really help this team win. I really want to attack hitters early in the count. I don’t want to go deep in counts. I think that’s really going to help my game tomorrow.”
Suarez did pitch into the eighth inning on June 23, allowing only two earned runs in a 6-2 win in San Diego. But he pointed out that Padres team, “(wasn’t) the same team as they are now.
“They didn’t have (Juan) Soto. They didn’t have (then injured Manny) Machado. And (Josh) Bell wasn’t there, either. So my plan tomorrow is to attack them, just attack the strike zone.”
If that plan were to go awry, there are plenty of leftover long relievers and little used bottom of the rotation starters populating that Phillies bullpen. But if he were to use several of them in Game 3, it could be a challenge for Rob Thomson to have a full contingent ready to go for Game 4.
Then again, he could always go with Wheeler on short rest…?
“No chance, no,” Thomson had said. OK, got it.
Source: Berkshire mont