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Wheeler overcomes ‘terrible' mound in Sacramento in another scoreless start originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Zack Wheeler could feel it before he even threw his first pitch Friday night.

The mound at Sutter Health Park, the minor-league stadium where the Athletics are playing their home games in 2025, was not the same as the big-league stadiums around baseball.

If you noticed Wheeler’s frustration in the first two innings of a 4-3 win over the A’s, it wasn’t over his command, it was about the mound.

“The mound was terrible. That was really it,” he said. “I felt great today and that’s why I was frustrated, because I felt great and the mound was bad.

“It was like cement right in front of the rubber and if you did break it up, there were little bumps in it. It probably doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re used to pitching on similar mounds throughout the league, just that little difference messes with you. Couldn’t really get into the dirt to drive, was kinda throwing all arm tonight. It was a little different. I just had to make little adjustments out there as it went.

“It is what it is. It turned out good so gotta roll with it.”

Of course it did. Wheeler seems to overcome everything, rising level by level season by season. He’s been a Cy Young runner-up twice as a Phillie and is pitching even better this year than those. He’s rattled off 22⅔ straight scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.42 and has the lowest WHIP in the National League at 0.88.

Asked whether major-league games should be played in minor-league parks, Wheeler said, “Probably not the best idea but sometimes I guess you have to.” The A’s are in Sacramento from 2025-27 as they await the opening of their new ballpark in Las Vegas.

Wheeler’s night ended after 6⅔ innings because his pitch count was up to 108. Orion Kerkering entered and dispelled a two-on, two-out jam for the second straight outing.

“I envision him being that guy,” manager Rob Thomson said of Kerkering. “Also a full-inning guy but that was a big spot there and he got it done. Wheels was out of pitches.”

The Phillies were two outs away from shutting the A’s out when Jordan Romano allowed a three-run homer to lefty-hitting rookie Nick Kurtz. Romano’s velocity was down and he, too, appeared to have problems with the mound. He had made nine consecutive scoreless appearances with six 1-2-3 innings entering the night.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth and needed a big assist from Johan Rojas, who somehow tracked down a deep line drive over his head hit by Tyler Soderstrom for the final out with the tying run 90 feet away. The ball had a catch probability of just 11%, according to Statcast.

“I just went back as soon as I saw the ball,” Rojas said. “Keep running, keep running, keep running. I know this field is bigger, the warning track is bigger than normal. I just kept going. I said I have to catch that ball, have to help my team. Wheeler did a great job, the bullpen came in and did a great job, too.

“Our rotation, we’ve got the best in baseball. I love those guys.”

The Phillies’ starting staff has a 1.28 ERA during the eight-game winning streak. Most of that has been elite pitching but some of it is owed to the Phillies playing solid defense, making all the routine plays and even a few spectacular ones.

“It’s been huge,” Thomson said. “(Alec) Bohm had a really nice game at third base, a couple difficult balls he fielded cleanly. Trea (Turner) has been really good. Rojas’ catch was outstanding. That’s what you’ve gotta do in these kind of games because we didn’t get our bats going until late. You’ve gotta get good pitching, good defense and do the little things and that’s what we’re doing.”

The Phillies’ only offense until the ninth inning was Turner’s leadoff home run, his first with the team. The Phils added three more off A’s closer Mason Miller in the top of the ninth with an RBI double from Bohm and RBI singles by Rojas and Turner. Miller is one of the hardest throwers in the sport but the Phillies scored three times to chase him.

“Just taking what he gives you,” Turner said. “Kinda simplified it and hit the ball the other way. Not trying to do too much tonight, not trying to pull homers. Just made it tough on him, got the pitch count. That’s what you have to do against those guys because they’re so good. Take what they give you.”

Phillies lose shutout in 9th but Romano hangs on to close out 8th straight win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Home or road, the first-place Phillies keep chugging along, riding their first leadoff home run of the season, a game-saving catch by Johan Rojas and just enough from the bullpen to an eighth straight win, 4-3 over the Athletics on Friday night.

Trea Turner hit the fourth pitch of the game 426 feet over the wall in center field at Sutter Health Park to give ace Zack Wheeler a quick lead and Wheeler, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm held the A’s scoreless through eight innings. Jordan Romano entered in the ninth with his team up four and gave three of them back on a Nick Kurtz home run but Tanner Banks recorded the 27th out for his first save as a Phillie.

Rojas’ catch was the play of the game. He got turned around on a deep line drive hit over his head by Tyler Soderstrom but recovered to corral it with the tying run on third base. The ball had a catch probability of just 11%, according to Statcast. Matt Strahm tipped his cap to the center fielder as he walked off the mound.

The Phillies are on fire in all phases — up and down the lineup, in the rotation and with solid defense and baserunning. They’re 33-18, the best record in the National League and a half-game behind the Tigers for the best mark in the majors. They’ve also won 12 of their last 13 road games and are tied with the Cubs for the best road record in the majors at 16-10.

Wheeler began his night with two backward K’s in a 1-2-3 bottom of the first and encountered little resistance until the bottom of the seventh. He went 6⅔ innings, didn’t allow a hit to the seven batters he faced with a man on base and was pulled after back-to-back walks in the seventh for Kerkering, who struck out Luis Urias to put a two-on, two-out threat to bed for the second straight outing.

Wheeler is up to 22⅔ straight scoreless innings and is 6-1 with a 2.42 ERA. He was the National League Cy Young runner-up in 2021 and 2024 and is certainly the favorite through 11 starts this season. He’s been even better than he was both those years and has the lowest WHIP in the NL at 0.88. Wheeler has allowed two runs or fewer in seven consecutive starts and the Phillies have won six.

He didn’t even have his sharpest fastball command, either, but still overpowered a young A’s lineup early with some of his best velocity of the year. Wheeler maxed out above 98 with his fastball, above 97 with his sinker and averaged more than 1 mph over his season average. Armed with six pitches, he kept the A’s off balance as the night progressed by mixing in more splitters, sweepers and curveballs the second and third times through.

“Sometimes they just explode out of his hand and you know he’s got his A-plus-plus stuff instead of his A-plus stuff,” Bryson Stott said last weekend after Wheeler beat the Pirates.

“A guy with that many pitches, that many strike pitches, he may save one or two the first time through the order and you think you’ve got him, and then he busts out the splitter, cutter or slider. That’s what the great ones do, they keep a pitch in their arsenal and start using it the second or third time through.”

Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez retired 17 of 18 Phillies from the second through seventh innings but Turner’s longball was enough to keep them ahead until Alec Bohm, Rojas and Turner added insurance with RBI knocks in the top of the ninth off closer Mason Miller.

Turner’s homer was his fourth of the season, first leadoff homer as a Phillie and would have been out in all 30 stadiums. He has been hitting for six weeks but the power is now accompanying all the table-setting. Turner has two doubles, two triples and two home runs in his last eight games. He said Wednesday night in Colorado that being hit in the elbow by two pitches in the span of four days in late April affected his mechanics of driving the ball but that he figured out a small tweak in the batting cage at Coors Field.

The Phillies are 20-5 since being swept by the Mets at Citi Field the third week of April and have won in all different ways these last three series. The last two victories have involved little offense but terrific pitching, minus Romano’s ninth inning Friday. The Phillies’ rotation has a 1.28 ERA during the eight-game winning streak, the equivalent of allowing one run every seven innings.

The eight straight wins are the Phillies’ most since Rob Thomson’s first eight games as manager in June 2022. They’ll look to make it nine — and eight series wins in the last nine — behind Cristopher Sanchez on Saturday night.

Phillies lose shutout in 9th but hang on to close out 8th straight win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Home or road, the first-place Phillies keep chugging along, riding their first leadoff home run of the season, a game-saving catch by Johan Rojas and just enough from the bullpen to an eighth straight win, 4-3 over the Athletics on Friday night.

Trea Turner hit the fourth pitch of the game 426 feet over the wall in center field at Sutter Health Park to give ace Zack Wheeler a quick lead and Wheeler, Orion Kerkering and Matt Strahm held the A’s scoreless through eight innings. Jordan Romano entered in the ninth with his team up four and gave three of them back on a Nick Kurtz home run but Tanner Banks recorded the 27th out for his first save as a Phillie.

Rojas’ catch was the play of the game. He got turned around on a deep line drive hit over his head by Tyler Soderstrom but recovered to corral it with the tying run on third base. The ball had a catch probability of just 11%, according to Statcast. Matt Strahm tipped his cap to the center fielder as he walked off the mound.

The Phillies are on fire in all phases — up and down the lineup, in the rotation and with solid defense and baserunning. They’re 33-18, the best record in the National League and a half-game behind the Tigers for the best mark in the majors. They’ve also won 12 of their last 13 road games and are tied with the Cubs for the best road record in the majors at 16-10.

Wheeler began his night with two backward K’s in a 1-2-3 bottom of the first and encountered little resistance until the bottom of the seventh. He went 6⅔ innings, didn’t allow a hit to the seven batters he faced with a man on base and was pulled after back-to-back walks in the seventh for Kerkering, who struck out Luis Urias to put a two-on, two-out threat to bed for the second straight outing.

Wheeler is up to 22⅔ straight scoreless innings and is 6-1 with a 2.42 ERA. He was the National League Cy Young runner-up in 2021 and 2024 and is certainly the favorite through 11 starts this season. He’s been even better than he was both those years and has the lowest WHIP in the NL at 0.88. Wheeler has allowed two runs or fewer in seven consecutive starts and the Phillies have won six.

He didn’t even have his sharpest fastball command, either, but still overpowered a young A’s lineup early with some of his best velocity of the year. Wheeler maxed out above 98 with his fastball, above 97 with his sinker and averaged more than 1 mph over his season average. Armed with six pitches, he kept the A’s off balance as the night progressed by mixing in more splitters, sweepers and curveballs the second and third times through.

“Sometimes they just explode out of his hand and you know he’s got his A-plus-plus stuff instead of his A-plus stuff,” Bryson Stott said last weekend after Wheeler beat the Pirates.

“A guy with that many pitches, that many strike pitches, he may save one or two the first time through the order and you think you’ve got him, and then he busts out the splitter, cutter or slider. That’s what the great ones do, they keep a pitch in their arsenal and start using it the second or third time through.”

Athletics left-hander Jacob Lopez retired 17 of 18 Phillies from the second through seventh innings but Turner’s longball was enough to keep them ahead until Alec Bohm, Rojas and Turner added insurance with RBI knocks in the top of the ninth off closer Mason Miller.

Turner’s homer was his fourth of the season, first leadoff homer as a Phillie and would have been out in all 30 stadiums. He has been hitting for six weeks but the power is now accompanying all the table-setting. Turner has two doubles, two triples and two home runs in his last eight games. He said Wednesday night in Colorado that being hit in the elbow by two pitches in the span of four days in late April affected his mechanics of driving the ball but that he figured out a small tweak in the batting cage at Coors Field.

The Phillies are 20-5 since being swept by the Mets at Citi Field the third week of April and have won in all different ways these last three series. The last two victories have involved little offense but terrific pitching, minus Romano’s ninth inning Friday. The Phillies’ rotation has a 1.28 ERA during the eight-game winning streak, the equivalent of allowing one run every seven innings.

The eight straight wins are the Phillies’ most since Rob Thomson’s first eight games as manager in June 2022. They’ll look to make it nine — and eight series wins in the last nine — behind Cristopher Sanchez on Saturday night.

The series opener between the Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Citi Field was stopped in the top of the third inning due to rain.

No restart time was announced at the time of the rain delay.

The Dodgers were threatening to score the game's first run when the clouds opened up and heavy rain came pouring down. The defending champions had runners on second and third with two outs. Mets starter Griffin Canning had Freddie Freeman in a 3-1 count when officials stopped play and the tarp was rolled out.

This story is still developing...

Former Mets reliever Jake Diekman announced his retirement late Friday.

"The time has come for me to retire as a Major League Baseball player," Diekman wrote in a social media post. "Thank you, God, for this life and being able to live out my wildest dream."

Diekman was drafted in the 30th round of the 2007 draft by the Philadelphia Phillies, where he spent the first three-and-a-half seasons of his career. The 38-year-old would go on to pitch for the Rangers, Diamondbacks, Royals, Athletics, Red Sox, White Sox, Rays before landing in Queens to play for the Mets in 2024.

He signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves this offseason but did not break camp with the team. He was later released by the organization in March.

"To the Diamondbacks, Royals, Athletics, Red Sox, White Sox, Rays and Mets, it was an honor to wear each and every uniform," he wrote. "The goal was always to try and win, not just for the front office and organization, but also for your city."

Diekman appeared in 705 career games, amassing a 27-34 record and a 3.91 ERA. He closed 19 games and struck out 764 batters across 602.1 innings. Last season with the Mets, he made 43 appearances, pitching to a 5.63 ERA and closing four games.

His most memorable Mets moment came during last year's Subway Series. On July 23, Diekman was called upon to hold a one-run lead against the Yankees in the ninth. The left-hander walked Juan Soto with out, allowing Aaron Judge to come up to the plate as the winning run. Diekman got to a 2-2 count and challenged Judge with an inside fastball that the soon-to-be AL MVP would swing through for the second out.

Diekman would get Ben Rice to ground out to finish off the 3-2 win.

Jake Diekman's full 9th-inning duel with Aaron Judge 🔥 pic.twitter.com/eWbWpgR05P

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) July 24, 2024