Steady Zack Wheeler out to bounce back as Phillies face Cards

After failing to deliver a quality start in his last start, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler will try to rebound Sunday afternoon.

He will take the mound against the Cardinals in the rubber match of a three-game series at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Cardinals won 2-0 Friday night, then the Phillies answered with a 4-1 victory Saturday afternoon.

Wheeler (1-0, 3.44 ERA) allowed five runs on eight hits and three walks in 5 1/3 innings against the Braves in Atlanta on Tuesday.

That snapped his 13-game streak of six or more innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed. A fielding mishap in the outfield opened the door for Sean Murphy to hit a three-run homer against him.

“Not being able to bear down and get out of that inning unscathed, that made me mad.” Wheeler said. “Things like that happen, you’ve got to keep the focus. I’ve been doing it for a while now and stuff like that’s happened over my career. So you kind of take pride as a pitcher, ‘All right, I’m going to get us out of this.’ And it just didn’t happen.”

Wheeler is 4-3 with a 2.63 ERA in eight career starts against the Cardinals.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson shuffled his batting order in this series, moving slumping third baseman Alec Bohm to the No. 7 spot Friday and the No. 8 slot Saturday.

Bohm snapped his 0-for-19 streak with a single and a run Saturday. He came into the game in a 4-for-43 slump.

“Really the only at-bats that aren’t good are the ones that I’m swinging out of the zone, and I’m not doing that a ton,” Bohm said. “Get the pitch that I should swing at and I’ve put that ball in play.”

The Cardinals will close out the series with left-hander Matthew Liberatore (0-1, 5.84 ERA). In his first two starts, he allowed early runs before settling in to give the team valuable innings.

Manager Oliver Marmol saw that as progress for Liberatore, who is trying to establish himself as a starter after previously swinging between the rotation and bullpen.

“Everything’s not going to be perfect,” Marmol said. “You’ve got to figure out a way to pitch through some traffic and get through those innings and still go back out and throw up zeros. He’s shown the ability to do that up to this point.”

Liberatore is 0-0 with a 4.35 ERA in seven career appearances against the Phillies, including one start.

The Cardinals adjusted their lineup in this series after losing shortstop Masyn Winn to back spasms. He landed on the 10-day injured list and was replaced on the roster by Nolan Gorman, who came off the 10-day IL after recovering from a hamstring strain.

In Winn’s absence, Thomas Saggese and Brendan Donovan will play shortstop. Gorman will play second base and also see designated hitter duty.

Gorman flied out as a pinch hitter Saturday in his return to action.

“He’s happy that we’re not stringing this along and sending him down to get at-bats,” Marmol said. “He was pushing to be back. Even if this didn’t happen, he was really pushing us to be back today.”

–Field Level Media