Zack Wheeler, the starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies against the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the World Series, was pulled from the game after allowing two baserunners in the middle of the sixth inning.
After Jose Alvarado replaced him, Yodan Alvarez blasted a three-run home run to give the Astros a 3-1 lead. In the end, Wheeler would be given the loss and charged with two earned runs on the home run.
Wheeler acknowledged that when manager Rob Thomson removed him with one out and runners on first and third, he was a little taken aback. The inning would have ended with a double play.
“It’s win or goes home right there,” Wheeler said to reporters after the game, “which threw me off guard a little bit. It’s difficult to swallow that. Top must make a decision, and that’s what he decided to do.”
He said: “It was tough. Obviously, I wanted to be out there and make the pitches. That type of stuff is going to happen. Just probably not the game for it to happen in.” According to Thomson, Alvarado and Alvarez would have made for a more favorable matchup. “I thought Wheels still had really good stuff. It wasn’t about that. I thought the matchup was better with Alvarado on Alvarez at that time,” Thomson said.
