Philadelphia Phillies right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler landed on the injured list on Saturday. On Monday, he successfully underwent a thrombolysis procedure to remove a blood clot near his right shoulder.
In the three games since that operation, the NL East-leading Phillies have responded to losing their ace indefinitely in historic fashion.
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Starting pitchers Ranger Suárez, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo combined for 34 strikeouts. Meanwhile, the Phillies’ lineup collected 48 hits across a series sweep of the Seattle Mariners.
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Philadelphia has now won four games in a row, dating back to Sunday’s series finale against the Washington Nationals, and they have combined for 40 runs in that span.
As for the Mariners series, it marks the first time Phillies starting pitchers have recorded at least 10 strikeouts in three straight games, at least since 1893 when the mound was moved to its current distance, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, who cited Elias Sports.
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Suárez, who notably notched a 1.36 ERA over a 10-start stretch from May 16 to July 5 before some recent struggles, stacked a season-high 10 Ks to begin the series with the AL West-contending Mariners. Then both Sánchez and Luzardo pocketed 12 strikeouts. In the process, Sánchez — an NL Cy Young candidate like Wheeler — matched his season high, and Luzardo reset his.
The Phillies’ bats accounted for 21 hits in a 12-7 win Monday, seven more in a 6-4 triumph Tuesday and then 20 more in an 11-2 shelling of the Mariners on Wednesday.
For the first time in the modern era, the Phillies had two games in the same series with 20-plus hits, according to The Athletic’s Jayson Stark.
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Wednesday’s offensive clinic was headlined by shortstop Trea Turner, who scattered five hits, and designated hitter Kyle Schwarber, who delivered his NL-leading 45th home run of the season and logged five RBI.
Schwarber’s 45 homers are the most by any Phillies player through the team’s first 127 games in single-season franchise history, per Langs, who noted that Ryan Howard had 44 in that same span during the 2006 season, and Mike Schmidt had 39 through 127 games of the 1979 season.
Wheeler’s recovery timeline is up in the air. There’s a very real scenario where the Phillies have to push for their first World Series title since 2008 without their top arm.
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But a rotation that was previously prepared to go six deep is already flexing its depth in Wheeler’s absence. And the Phillies’ lineup is roaring with offense as the MLB calendar rounds its home stretch.