Zack Wheeler looked much like his old self on Wednesday night in Washington, D.C.

It was a much-welcomed performance for a Phillies team that has questions surrounding their rotation come October.

The Phillies star picked up his 13th win of the season after tossing seven scoreless innings in the Phillies’ 3-0 victory. Wheeler lowered his season earned run average mark back to 2.99, just over a year after undergoing thoracic outlet surgery in 2025. He picked up five strikeouts and allowed just four hits. 

After a brief period in which Wheeler massively struggled, the veteran has seemingly found his way out of his slump. He has returned to the caliber of pitcher everyone has come to expect. 

The Phillies score early but not often

Earlier in the afternoon, the Nationals scratched starter Cade Cavalli, who was set to oppose Wheeler.

Instead, Washington put together a bullpen game. With one of the worst collections of relievers in baseball this season, this should not have been much of a threat to the Phillies’ lineup.

The start of the ballgame put that theory to the test. With one out, the Nationals’ starter Jared Simpson would walk the next three batters in a row to load the bases. An Alec Bohm single and a Bryson Stott walk would chase Simpson from the ballgame and give the Phillies an early 2-0 lead.

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However, that same Nationals’ bullpen would escape the first inning without much more of a threat. Then, their collection of relief arms settled in nicely, limiting the Phillies to one final run in the seventh, an RBI double from Luis Arraez to score Bryce Harper from first base.

It was Arraez’s third double of the series, which helped boost his OPS to .782 on the season.

Game notes

The win concluded the Phillies’ season series with Washington. They went 9-4 against the Nationals in their 13 matchups. Philly is now 512-462 all-time against the Nationals organization.

At the time of this writing, the Chicago Cubs lead the Atlanta Braves 8-2. Assuming the score holds, the Cubs will retain their 0.5-game lead in the National League Wild Card standings. With the tiebreaker over the Phillies, the true lead is 1.5 games.

With Atlanta’s loss, the Phillies stay alive in the National League East race, bringing them to 4.5 games back. Again, with the tiebreaker included, the Braves’ true lead is 5.5 games.

The San Diego Padres are holding a lead over the Colorado Rockies. Assuming that score holds, the Padres will remain one game back of Philly and hold the last Wild Card seed. 

The Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins were still tied at zero at the time of this article.

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