PHILADELPHIA — Zack Wheeler had what Justin Wrobleski wanted. Then Wheeler decided he didn’t want it. So Wrobleski got what he wanted.
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The spot on the National League All-Star team that both had pitched well enough to deserve but neither received during the original round of selections was offered to Wheeler when Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns had to back out with an injury. In an All-Star level fit of pique, Wheeler declined – and Wrobleski was picked, striking out five in two innings of the midsummer showcase.
As luck – or baseball’s incorporeal powers – would have it, Wheeler and Wrobleski were matched up Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park. Another All-Star, Max Muncy, settled the pitchers’ duel between the two with a two-run home run off Wheeler that gave the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
The start of the game was delayed by 80 minutes because of heavy rains. The rain persisted for most of the night with less volume but still enough to leave everything as soggy as a cheesesteak with extra whiz.
The end of the game featured a two-pronged baserunning blunder by the Phillies, who had the tying and winning runs at second and third base with one out in the ninth inning – and managed to run into a game-ending double play. The defensive closeout left both teams standing on the field stunned and raised memories of the ‘wheel play’ that helped the Dodgers win Game 2 of last year’s NL Division Series showdown.
“It actually did a little bit,” Muncy said. “It kind of gave me a little bit of a flashback, yeah.”
After Wrobleski pitched into the seventh inning for the eighth time in his 16 starts this season, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided it was time to take it a little easy on the young left-hander who has already pitched more innings this season than he ever has in his life. Roberts pulled him after 89 pitches, turning to Evan Phillips and Tanner Scott to shepherd the one-run lead over the final 2⅔ innings and asking Scott for a five-out save.
Scott ran into trouble in the ninth, though, when he gave up a leadoff single to Alec Bohm and a one-out double to JT Realmuto. With the left-handed Brandon Marsh batting, only Muncy was playing in on the infield. That’s right where Marsh hit a soft ground ball. Pinch-runner Justin Crawford thought it was hit softly enough for him to score but Muncy charged the ball and threw home, getting Crawford in a rundown. Catcher Dalton Rushing ran him back towards third where shortstop Mookie Betts and Realmuto were converging.
Betts tagged Crawford before he could get back to the base for the second out of the inning. Realmuto was already at third but made a fundamental baserunning mistake, turning and trying to run back to second base.
“I think in his mind he saw Rushing running the guy back to third,” Muncy said. “As the guy with the ball, you’re kind of taught, just run them all the way back to the bag and tag one of them. So I think he was thinking, I’ll get off the bag and he (Crawford) wouldn’t give it up.
“Thankfully Rush was able to be kind of be in communication with Mookie on that. After that, we were all yelling ‘Two!’ Mook said he didn’t know why we were yelling, ‘Two!’ but he realized pretty quickly.”
Betts’ throw to Tommy Edman beat Realmuto back to second base for the game-ending out.
“It’s just fundamentals,” Roberts said. “Max did a great job securing the baseball, understood the tying run was going home, ran him hard back. To be quite frank, Dalton should have run the player back. He didn’t but fortunately JT made an uncharacteristic baserunning mistake and fortunately Mookie threw a dart to second base.
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“Big adrenaline, big win. … Real fun ballgame to be a part of.”
With Wrobleski and Wheeler on the mound, runs were as hard to come by as a dry spot in the stands.
The Phillies started out well enough, doing two-out damage in the first inning against Wrobleski. Bryce Harper doubled and scored on Alec Bohm’s single to give the Phillies the early lead.
It looked like the Dodgers had tied the score in the third inning with their own two-out hits.
Eliezer Alfonzo Jr. got his first extra-base hit in the major leagues, dropping a double down the right field line. Alfonzo scored when Shohei Ohtani lined a hit into center field and stretched it into a double – at least on first look.
A replay review determined that Ohtani had not evaded the tag of shortstop Trea Turner and was actually out at second base, his decision to go for the extra base questionable even before that. More problematic, Alfonzo had slowed down running from third to home and did not touch home plate before Turner applied the tag on Ohtani at second base. The run was taken off the board.
“Did he need to try (to stretch it to a double)? No. But it was a close play and if Eliezer runs through the plate then we’re safe and we score a run there,” Roberts said before absolving Alfonzo of his sin. “But with Eliezer, he caught a great game tonight, did a great job with Wrobo, threw out a double. So he had a really good big-league ballgame.”
An inning later, though, the Dodgers did that play one better. Andy Pages led off the fourth with a single off Wheeler. Two batters later, Muncy jumped on a first-pitch cutter and drove it 421 feet into the trees beyond the center field fence. The two-run home run flipped the score and gave the Dodgers their first lead in this series.
“Wheeler was really, really good. He’s always really good. He releases the ball about three feet from the catcher and (has) really elite command,” Muncy said.
“Runner on first, one out, I thought he was going to try to do something to get into a double play. I wanted to look out over (the plate) and go up a little bit. He gave me a pitch that he threw me three times the previous at-bat. It just started kind of right where I was looking, so I was able to pull the trigger on it. I didn’t think I got it. I thought I hit it a little bit too low. But the ball was carrying pretty well tonight.”
Wrobleski gave up just three hits after the first inning, struck out seven in the game and allowed one run or none for the ninth time in his 16 starts this season.
“You’re always excited when you face off against someone like Zack Wheeler,” Wrobleski said of the All-Star grudge match. “He’s kind of one of the first guys when I first came up to the big leagues and just watching the game, I was like, ‘Damn, this is real.’ Like, he has real stuff.
“He’s a really good pitcher and it’s just fun to watch him pitch. I’ve been a big fan of his for a while, so it’s always cool to go up against people that are really good because you know your margins are smaller and you have to go out there and throw up zeroes because you know they’re going to do the same.”
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