The calendar reads that it is April, though Mother Nature continues to provide biting reminders of that winter chill.<\/p>\n
Zack Wheeler continues to remind himself that his calendar reads that it\u2019s still spring training as he works his way back from thoracic outlet surgery.<\/p>\n
That means there are adjustments and tweaks with every outing, including\u00a0Wednesday\u2019s third rehab start with the IronPigs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a little out of sync with my mechanics [in my previous start],\u201d he said, \u201cespecially out of the wind-up. I think I found it, something with my left leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, that\u2019s what happens every spring training. This is my spring training, so we kind of fixed it and felt a lot better today, a lot more smooth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler allowed one run on three hits, a walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch in 4 1\/3 inning against the Rochester Red Wings. He threw 61 pitches, 44 for strikes. He struck out six. He threw 12 of 17 first-pitch strikes.<\/p>\n
The 35-year-old is slated to make at least one more rehab start somewhere next week. Lehigh Valley is in St. Paul, Minn., and Double-A Reading is in Somerset, N.J.<\/p>\n
There is more to work on in Wheeler\u2019s spring training: More mechanical tweaks, more stretched out, more patience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I\u2019d a little further along,\u201d Wheeler admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s the big thing, just the muscle memory, taking time to get it back. So, it\u2019s frustrating, sometimes, but at the same time I know I was out for awhile and had major surgery. So, I\u2019ve got to remind myself to just take it as it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheeler, who threw 38 and 49 pitches, respectively, in his first two rehab starts, commanded all of his pitches on Wednesday \u2014 another chilly night in the Lehigh Valley. That\u2019s something that was not there previously this spring.<\/p>\n
The right-hander produced five swing-and-misses, 12 called strikes (two on third strikes) and 18 foul balls among the 44 strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The offspeed pitches] were working today,\u201d Wheeler said, \u201cprobably the best so far. They got a tiny bit sloppy at the end, but that tends to happen in every start. But early on, they were really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rochester scored its lone run against Wheeler thanks to a 60-foot dribbler, an infielder chopper and blooper in no man\u2019s land in the fourth inning. That\u2019s also when he walked a batter and threw a wild pitch. But he also induced a double-play grounder and got a called third strike to prevent further damage.<\/p>\n
The Red Wings had only one hard-hit ball. Robert Hassell hit a 98.8 mph liner on Wheeler\u2019s first pitch of the game right at IronPigs third baseman Carter Kieboom.<\/p>\n
Wheeler sat at 93 mph on his fastball, still a tick or two down from his expected form. But he said he\u2019s dealt with that as recently as a couple years ago in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still a little off,\u201d Wheeler admitted. \u201cThat\u2019s why you take these starts, tinker here and there, kind of let your body adjust. There\u2019s nothing more you can do besides pitch and get those reps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roster moves<\/p>\n
The Phillies acquired OF Steward Berroa from the Brewers in exchange for cash considerations and optioned him to the IronPigs. To make room for Berroa on the 40-man roster, right-handed pitcher Yoniel Curet was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n
Berroa, 26, began the season on the 10-day injured list with a right shoulder strain before being optioned to Triple-A Nashville on April 2, then designated for assignment the next day. He made two rehab appearances with the Sounds, batting .250 (2-for-8) with one walk and a run scored.<\/p>\n
The Dominican Republic native, who will report Friday, was originally signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as a non-drafted free agent on July 4, 2016. He played 30 career games between the Brewers and Blue Jays from 2024-25. In 601 career minor league games, the switch-hitter slashed .250\/.355\/.378 with 90 doubles, 27 triples, 36 home runs, 228 RBIs, 313 walks, 388 runs scored and 271 stolen bases.<\/p>\n
LHP Kyle Backhus, optioned Wednesday by the Phillies, was added to the IronPigs\u2019 roster.<\/p>\n
OF Cade Fergus was put on the Development List.<\/p>\n
How they scored<\/p>\n
Top 4: Harry Ford reached on an infield dribbler and Dylan Crews reached on an infield single. After a double-play grounder, Andres Chaparro\u2019s bloop single to center scored Ford. Red Wings 1-0.<\/p>\n
Top 6: Dylan Crews and Abimelec Ortiz walked. Chaparro\u2019s single scored Crews. Yohandy Morales\u2019 single scored Ortiz. Andrew Pinckney then snapped an 0-for-11 streak with a three-run home run, his first homer of the season. Red Wings 6-0.<\/p>\n
Bottom 6: Christian Cairo walked and scored on Felix Reyes\u2019 home run, his third of the season. Red Wings 6-2.<\/p>\n
Bottom 9: Bryan De La Cruz walked, took second on a wild pitch, third on Pedro Leon\u2019s single and scored on Liover Peguero\u2019s grounder. Red Wings 6-3.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
RHP Alan Rangel (1-0, 0.84 ERA) vs. Rochester LHP Mitchell Parker (1-1, 4.66) in a 6:35 p.m. start Thursday from Coca-Cola Park. Rangel allowed three hits and three walks in six shutout innings in his last start in Durham.<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The calendar reads that it is April, though Mother Nature continues to provide biting reminders of that winter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2397],"tags":[5,4,144,25,4216,40,185,4802],"class_list":{"0":"post-671288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","12":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","13":"tag-phillies","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116372129966820724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}