{"id":233900,"date":"2026-07-02T16:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233900\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:48:07","slug":"mattingly-defends-early-wheeler-hook-as-phillies-await-reinforcements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/233900\/","title":{"rendered":"Mattingly defends early Wheeler hook as Phillies await reinforcements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zack Wheeler did not hide his frustration after being pulled early Wednesday night, but Don Mattingly made clear Thursday that protecting his ace comes first.<\/p>\n

As the Phillies navigate bullpen usage, rotation depth concerns and a few potential reinforcements<\/a> working their way back, Thursday\u2019s pregame availability offered a glimpse into how the club is managing the long road to October.<\/p>\n

Wheeler\u2019s heat<\/p>\n

Wednesday saw Zack Wheeler\u2019s first time getting pulled from a game with less than 5.0 innings pitched since 2024.<\/p>\n

While Wheeler racked up 10 strikeouts, his nine hits and one walk allowed in four runs over the course of 4.2 innings against the Pirates. After allowing an RBI single from Nick Gonzales, he was removed with one out to go in the fifth. Following the game, Wheeler expressed his frustrations on the early pull to the media.<\/p>\n

Thursday morning, Mattingly was asked if he had spoken to his ace starting pitcher yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not at this point, I don’t think he\u2019d want to talk to me yet,\u201d said Mattingly. \u201cIt really doesn’t bother me at all that he’s upset. I think the great ones never want to come out of a game. And he’s no different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattingly went on to explain that his removing Wheeler was a move meant to protect the pitcher\u2019s longevity<\/a>. While the Phillies have a strong top of the rotation in Wheeler, Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, and Jes\u00fas Luzardo, the recent struggles of Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter have revealed that depth does not extend far.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy job is to make sure that this guy stays available through the course of the season, and we got a long way to go, so I really don’t mind guys being upset,\u201d Mattingly continued. \u201cI’m not afraid to talk to him\u2026 but I still have to do what I have to do with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Updates from the Minor Leagues<\/p>\n

Relief pitcher Brad Keller, who is on the injured list with right forearm tendinitis, will undergo a rehab stint with Triple-A Lehigh Valley beginning Friday. Keller will join the team for its away series in Rochester, N.Y.<\/p>\n

In 31 appearances with the Phillies so far this season, Keller owns a 4.15 ERA, striking out 31 batters. Keller will likely return to the Phillies\u2019 bullpen before the All-Star break, providing some much-needed reinforcement for a group seeing high utilization in recent days.<\/p>\n

In other news, Tommy Pham continues to get back into the swing of things with the Phillies\u2019 team down in the Florida Complex. Monday, the outfield went 2-for-2 with a home run and double. The next day, he went 1-for-2 with a single.<\/p>\n

MORE: Phillies bats pound Skenes in an 10-6 victory<\/a><\/p>\n

Pham, 38, is on a minor league contract with the Phillies hoping he can prove himself to fill an outfield spot on the major league squad.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the one thing that Tommy has expressed is that he wants to be ready, not rushed here if that happens at all,\u201d explained Mattingly. \u201cNobody’s guaranteed Tommy’s going to come to the big leagues. But I think the one thing that he wanted was to make sure he had at-bats, he was ready to go if he was recalled.\u201d<\/p>\n

100-degree day game<\/p>\n

As the temperatures heat up in Philadelphia, the Phillies and Pirates will duke it in their final meeting of the 2026 regular season.<\/p>\n

Alan Rangel will make the start in the 12:35 affair for the Phillies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zack Wheeler did not hide his frustration after being pulled early Wednesday night, but Don Mattingly made clear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99422,43476,69,71,70,8740,18203,8743],"class_list":["post-233900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-alan-rangel","tag-don-mattingly","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-phillies","tag-pirates","tag-zack-wheeler"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}