Zack Wheeler sharp in third rehab start, IronPigs fall to Rochester

Zack Wheeler looked like the bigger story at Coca-Cola Park, and for good reason. In his third rehab start for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, the Phillies right-hander was sharp from the first pitch, held Rochester hitless through three innings and finished with 4.1 innings of one-run ball in a game Lehigh Valley lost 6-3.

Wheeler’s line told the story of a pitcher trending the right way: 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 6 strikeouts on 61 pitches, 44 of them strikes. The only damage against him came in the fourth, when Rochester scratched out a run on a broken-bat flare. Even then, the Red Wings never squared him up. All three hits Wheeler allowed were singles, which is exactly the kind of detail the Phillies want to see from a starter working back toward major-league readiness.

The problem was everything around the rehab assignment. Rochester broke the game open with five runs in the sixth, turning a tight night into a 6-0 cushion. Andrés Chaparro and Yohandy Morales delivered RBI singles in the inning, then Andrew Pinckney blew it open with a three-run homer. Andrew Alvarez, who allowed two runs over five-plus innings and struck out six, earned the win and moved to 2-0 as the Red Wings improved to 6-5.

Lehigh Valley finally answered in the bottom half of the sixth, when Felix Reyes launched a two-run homer for his third of the season. That made the power bat the only real offensive highlight for the IronPigs until the ninth, when Liover Peguero grounded into an RBI play to bring home another run. Even then, the tying run was left in the on-deck circle for the second straight night, a rough reminder that the home club could not cash in enough chances after the big sixth-inning swing.

For the Phillies, Wheeler’s outing mattered more than the loss. The right-hander looked efficient, missed bats and handled his workload without issue, which is the point of a rehab start in the first place. Lehigh Valley, now 7-4, gets back to the grind with another chance to bridge the gap between Triple-A development and a major-league rotation that is watching every pitch. Rochester was slated to send Mitchell Parker against Alan Rangel in the next game of the series.