The Philadelphia Phillies arrive in Los Angeles with a different feel than the club that opened the season among baseball’s worst teams, and Zack Wheeler is at the center of it. The right-hander is set to start against the Dodgers tonight, and the Phillies have won all six of his starts.
That is why dodgers vs phillies is drawing attention now: Wheeler is 4-0 with a 1.67 ERA and a 0.82 WHIP in 37.2 innings, and he has strung together 13 straight scoreless innings. Philadelphia’s turnaround has come after the team fired its manager and later used Don Mattingly as interim manager, a reset that has helped lift the Phillies above.500.
The numbers say Wheeler has given Philadelphia a real chance every time he takes the mound. The Phillies have backed him with enough support to win each of his six starts, and his run prevention has been sharp enough to keep the game out of trouble early, even as the workload remains light enough that he does not qualify for league leader boards.
But this matchup carries the kind of friction that makes a good pitching night worth watching. Dodgers hitters have batted.311 against Wheeler over 135 at-bats, and Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas have accounted for more than half of those trips. Wheeler has been excellent this season, yet Los Angeles has seen him well enough to turn his best trait into the one thing that does not quite fit the story.
The Dodgers bring their own weight into the game. They are 16 games above.500 and have matched their road record and home record at 18-10, with Justin Wrobleski scheduled to start for Los Angeles. Wrobleski is 6-2 with a 3.07 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP, though he has allowed 14 earned runs over his past 19.2 innings and 19 earned runs overall this season.
Philadelphia has had little success against Wrobleski so far, with its hitters facing him five times and collecting four hits. The Dodgers were listed at -120, which fits the broader shape of the night: one club trying to keep a turnaround alive, another trying to remind the league why it has spent the season among baseball’s best.
If Wheeler’s recent form travels with him, the Phillies have a path to make this more than a test. If it does not, the Dodgers’ familiarity with him could be enough to turn a promising start into another hard evening in Los Angeles.
