PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It won't take long for the Phillies to see how they measure up with some of the National League East contenders.
The Phillies' season gets underway on Thursday with a home game against Atlanta. It will be the first of 13 games to start the season where the Phillies will either play the Braves or the Mets.
It is a challenging start to the season, but part of the type of schedule which all major league teams are forced to deal with. Phillies pitcher Zack Wheeler wishes the format would change in future seasons.
"I don't know who made the schedule a couple of years ago," said Wheeler. "When you schedule teams back-to-back like they have been the past couple of years, nobody likes it because you're facing the same team over and over and over. Then, you don't face them for a month or two, whenever it may be, then you face them again for two weeks."
Regardless of the schedule, Wheeler appears ready for the start of the season. He came up with a strong spring training performance on Sunday against the Yankees as he allowed no runs and just one hit over three innings. While Wheeler was pleased with his performance, he echoed the same sentiments as his fellow pitchers about how spring training is about experimenting before the start of the 2021 campaign.
"You want to do well and get what you need in," Wheeler said. "But numbers don't matter at all. Like I've always said, you kind of work on stuff every time out."
Wheeler last pitched in front of fans at Citizens Bank Park as a visiting player. The former Met did not get a chance to pitch in front of the Phillies faithful when he joined the team last season because of the pandemic. There will be a limited amount of fans allowed back at the ballpark this season, so Wheeler will finally get the chance to have Phillies fans cheer for him instead of cheering against him.
"It's going to be fun," said Wheeler. "Being a road team coming in, you know how well they love their team and how crazy they are and how loud they are. It's definitely going to be good to be on that side of it."
Regardless of the schedule, Wheeler is confident heading into the season. Even with the challenge of the games against the Braves and Mets in April, Wheeler believes he and his teammates can make a strong statement over the first two weeks.
"You're going in and facing tough teams and tough competition," Wheeler said. "You've got to be ready to go. I feel like our guys are at that point where we're ready to roll."