The Phillies, league leaders in 7-inning starts, are making it cool again to pitch deep in games (2024)

PHILADELPHIA — He was one out from the 18th seven-inning start in 51 games of this charmed Phillies season, and that is when Zack Wheeler played the game. He pitched. The Phillies are not saving baseball with every seven-inning start but, as the sport faces a raging debate about preserving the importance of starting pitchers, this is compelling.

“We all have that mentality of going seven-plus every time,” Wheeler said of the Phillies staff. “If you don’t, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But that’s our goal.”

The Rangers had the tying runs on base in the seventh inning. They summoned Jonah Heim to pinch hit against Wheeler, whose pitch count sat at a manageable 86. This was Wheeler’s inning. He threw Heim a first-pitch cutter in the dirt. A wild pitch. The tying run moved into scoring position. Wheeler countered with a 96 mph fastball up and in that Heim took for ball two.

Now, Wheeler had a choice. First base was open. But Marcus Semien, arguably Texas’ best hitter, was on deck. The Phillies have established a culture among their starting pitchers and catchers. There is no one answer for how to do this. There is no formula. Going through a lineup three times is an art.

Wheeler threw Heim two fastballs out of the zone on purpose. He walked him. He put the go-ahead run on base.

“At that point, I really didn’t want to get back into the at-bat,” Wheeler said. “Just because, with two guys on and the game where it was, I don’t want to get back into the count and make too much of a mistake for him to put them ahead. I threw a couple of pitches where if you swing, you swing. Just try to start over with Semien. I know he’s a great hitter, but I just wanted to start over with the count. Just go right after him.”

Semien swung at the first pitch, a 96 mph sinker, and popped it into the air. Bryce Harper caught it 68 feet from home plate. Wheeler had his seven innings.

The Phillies won again.

“It’s amazing,” said Nick Castellanos, who homered in the 5-2 win. “This is the best team I have ever been a part of. It’s a lot of fun.”

Casty solo shot 💥#RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/KpoDlJz0AL

— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) May 23, 2024

It’s fun because the Phillies have scored four or more runs in 13 straight games — their longest streak in 20 years. It’s fun because, on a Thursday afternoon in May, an announced crowd of 42,377 packed Citizens Bank Park. It’s fun because the Phillies have adopted a throwback style on the mound.

They are making it cool again to pitch deep into games.

“I just think that’s a result of having veteran starting pitching the staff believes in,” Castellanos said. “So they get those extra innings when the lineup is coming around a third time.”

The results support it. Phillies starters entered Thursday with a .626 OPS against when facing a lineup for the first time. It dipped to .592 the second time through the batting order. And, in the third time through, opponents had a mere .617 OPS.

The league average a third time through a lineup is a .755 OPS.

The Phillies’ 18 starts of seven-plus innings are the most in baseball — by six starts. Atlanta has 12. No other team entered Thursday with more than nine. The Phillies already have more seven-inning starts than 11 teams did in all of 2023.

Wheeler credited the work of J.T. Realmuto and Garrett Stubbs — both in pregame planning and behind the plate calling games. That is real. So is the work led by pitching coaches Caleb Cotham and Brian Kaplan.

Most of it is about establishing a standard that, in 2024, sounds anachronistic.

“Third time through is real,” Cotham said earlier this month on the Phillies Therapy podcast. “It’s been real forever. But the foundational things that we think are: First time though, make them deal with you and establish your strengths. Second time through, do we need to pivot? Has the hitter deserved something that we need to change course on? And, third time, there’s a little bit of just being a magician.”

Like what Wheeler did Thursday afternoon.

Cotham and Wheeler have credited Realmuto for his skilled reading of hitters’ swings. The Phillies will not typically lean on their starters’ best options the first time through a lineup. If Aaron Nola went 60 percent curveball the first time through, a hitter might have a better look at that pitch later in the game.

“It’s less likely that he can confuse the hitter third time through,” Cotham said. “They’ve seen these things. At its core, you need options. You need multiple offerings. As a starter, I do think you need two (different) fastballs. You need a good off-speed pitch. You need to be able to create randomness in the strike zone.”

Ranger Suárez, who has pitched to a 1.36 ERA in 10 starts, epitomizes that dynamic. So does Wheeler, who threw six different pitches in Thursday’s start. He generated swinging strikes on five of them. He threw his splitter, a new pitch for him this season, seven times and four resulted in whiffs.

The Phillies, Cotham said, have evolved to keep the pregame plans simpler. They are aware of hitters’ tendencies. They’ll make certain decisions based on them. But it does not dictate things. “We’re going to respect the hitter by giving him everything we got,” Cotham said, “and let’s see how that goes.” The plan can adapt on any given night for Wheeler, Nola and Suárez. They have options.

Realmuto guides them in recalling how hitters reacted to a certain pitch. Cotham called that trait “a weapon.”

“The cliche is you have to know how to read hitters,” Cotham said. “But what are the couple of things you need to notice? If the plan is simple and I’m thinking clearly — not about all these fancy things — now I have an opportunity to notice things about the hitter. And all that equals is playing the game. You’re actually inside the game. Playing the game against the hitter. You’re not like, ‘Well, I need to get to 30 percent changeup usage. I need to get my front side to this spot.’ You’re wrapped up in the game. At its core, that is what this thing is all about.”

The Phillies, at some point, will have to manage their starters. They wanted them better prepared to begin the season. They were. They do not want to red-line anyone in May or June; it’s why they are playing the long game with Spencer Turnbull. There will be chances for a six-man rotation in the summer. Maybe, if the Phillies have banked enough wins, they can skip a starter to stabilize his workload.

They have options. They trust them, just like Wheeler did in Thursday’s seventh inning. It’s a beautiful thing when it works.

(Photo of Zack Wheeler: Tim Nwachukwu / Getty Images)

Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.