Zack Wheeler gave the Phillies exactly what they needed Friday night.
Not fireworks. Not another wild ninth-inning comeback. Not another chapter in a week that had already bent toward the ridiculous.
Just seven innings, one run and enough control of the game to let the Phillies do the rest.
Behind another sharp start from Wheeler and a seventh-inning RBI single from Trea Turner, the Phillies beat the New York Mets, 2-1, at Citi Field to extend their winning streak to four games.
It was a different kind of win than the ones that carried them through Washington earlier in the week. There was no late avalanche, no historic ninth-inning swing, no sense that the game had to be rescued from the edge.
This one was built on Wheeler’s right arm, a couple of timely swings and a bullpen that protected the narrowest kind of lead.
Wheeler improved to 8-1 and continued one of the steadier stretches of his season. He allowed one run over seven innings, giving the Phillies length at the end of a demanding week and continuing a run in which he has allowed one run or fewer in seven of his 12 starts.
That mattered Friday because the Phillies did not produce much offense against Mets rookie left-hander Zach Thornton, who settled in after a shaky first inning and gave New York six strong innings.
The Phillies grabbed the lead in the first when Bryce Harper delivered a run-scoring single, giving Wheeler a quick cushion. It stayed that way until the Mets scratched out their only run, pulling even and forcing the Phillies to find one more answer.
They found it in the seventh.
Turner came through with the tie-breaking single off Huascar Brazoban, putting the Phillies back in front and handing the game to a bullpen that has been asked to handle plenty of high-pressure innings during a stretch in which the club has won four straight and six of seven.
Brazoban took the loss for New York.
Orion Kerkering handled the eighth. Jhoan Duran closed the ninth for his 20th save.
That was enough.
The Phillies’ recent push has changed the feel around a team that spent the early part of the season trying to pull itself out of a hole. Friday’s win was not loud, but it was clean. It was efficient. And it came against a division opponent dealing with its own unraveling.
The Mets played their first game under interim manager Andy Green after firing Carlos Mendoza earlier in the day. The loss was their seventh straight.
The game could have tilted early. Juan Soto nearly gave the Mets a first-inning lead with a drive to center, but Derek Hill took it away with a leaping catch, robbing Soto of a potential two-run homer and preserving the Phillies’ early advantage.
It was the kind of play that can disappear inside a 2-1 box score but shape the whole night. Instead of Wheeler pitching from behind, he worked with a lead. Instead of the Mets landing the first punch during a turbulent day, the Phillies kept control.
That has been the difference lately.
During this stretch, the Phillies have won with power. They have won with chaos. They have won with late swings that turned losses into franchise-history footnotes.
On Friday, they won because Wheeler pitched like a stopper, Hill made the play that had to be made, Turner delivered when the lineup needed one clean swing, and the bullpen closed the door.
It was not loud.
It did not need to be.
For a team trying to stack wins and keep climbing, this one counted the same.
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