Zack Wheeler will make his second start of the season Friday night against the Marlins at loanDepot park, taking the ball on five days' rest as the Phillies try to keep their rotation intact after a chaotic stretch of schedule changes. Wheeler is lined up after the club altered its pitching plans when Wednesday night's game against the San Francisco Giants was postponed.
Andrew Painter had originally been set to pitch Thursday, but the postponement forced Philadelphia to rethink the order. Cristopher Sánchez opened Game 1 of Thursday's doubleheader, and the Phillies then used a bullpen game in Game 2, a choice they pulled out with an extra arm on the roster in Nolan Hoffman. The team swept both games with two walk-off wins.
Wheeler's outing Friday comes after he went five innings and allowed two runs in Atlanta this past Saturday, his return from thoracic outlet decompression surgery. That start was his first of the season, and the club is now trying to manage his workload carefully while staying on course in a four-game series in Miami.
Don Mattingly said the Phillies wanted to avoid using Sánchez and Painter on the same day, which helped drive the decision to move away from the original plan. He also said the club was still discussing who will take the mound for the second game of the series, adding that the Phillies will have a decision made soon.
For Philadelphia, the immediate test is simple: protect the arms, keep the rotation order from drifting too far, and get through the rest of the series without another reset. The answer on the second game starter should come quickly, but the Phillies already showed Thursday that they are willing to bend the plan if the day demands it.