Zack Wheeler and the Philadelphia Phillies will look to complete a season-series sweep of the visiting San Diego Padres when the two teams face off Thursday afternoon.
The Phillies have dominated the Padres so far this year, going 5-0—including a three-game sweep in San Diego last week and victories in the first two games of this week’s set at Citizens Bank Park. Both wins in the current series have been decided by a 3-2 margin, with Wednesday’s game highlighting another strong performance from left-hander Cristopher Sanchez.
Sanchez extended his scoreless streak to 50⅔ innings on Wednesday before finally surrendering a run with two outs in the seventh. That stretch ranks as the fifth-longest in MLB history and the longest ever by a left-handed pitcher. “I don’t think my vocabulary is good enough to describe what he’s doing right now,” said Phillies interim manager Don Mattingly. “It’s just been incredible to watch.”
After the Padres tied the game 1-1 in the seventh, J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber answered with back-to-back homers in the bottom half to put Philadelphia back on top. Jhoan Durán closed it out in the ninth, sending San Diego to its eighth loss in nine games. “We have to find a way to match them and bring our best game tomorrow,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen. “This is the majors. You’re always facing good pitchers. They’re here for a reason. We have big-league hitters, so we need to figure out how to score.”
Neither team has been putting up many runs lately. The Phillies have failed to score more than four runs in any of their last 13 games, while the Padres have managed just seven runs total across five meetings with Philadelphia this season.
The Phillies turn to Wheeler (4-1, 2.27 ERA) as they attempt the sweep. He took his first loss of the season Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing four solo home runs over six innings—after giving up just one homer total in his first six starts of 2026. “That’s baseball,” Wheeler said. “It’s a weird game. Sometimes you feel off and still pitch well. Other times you don’t.” Wheeler owns a 5-1 record and 2.17 ERA in his career against San Diego. The Padres will counter with Lucas Giolito (2-0, 4.97 ERA), who signed with the team in April and has made three starts since.
His worst outing came Friday against the Washington Nationals, when he gave up four runs, five hits, and four walks in just 2⅔ innings. “Terrible,” Giolito said. “The things we’ve been working on aren’t translating in games. … I can’t keep having short starts like this.” In three career starts versus Philadelphia, Giolito is 1-1 with a 5.74 ERA. He’ll need to be especially careful with Schwarber, who leads MLB with 23 home runs. Schwarber is 4-for-15 with one homer in his career against Giolito, while Trea Turner has two homers in seven at-bats, and Bryce Harper is 2-for-5 with two homers.
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