At 35 Zack Wheeler continues to put himself squarely into the history of great Phillies pitchers. His domination in June led him to be selected the National League Pitcher of the Month honor for the month of June in Major League Baseball. It’s the second time in his career that the right-hander has been the league’s pitcher of the month.

Nobody this season – and few in Phillies history – have had as dominating of a month as Zack Wheeler had for the Phillies in June. In 31 innings, Wheeler had a scant 0.58 ERA with a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio (42 strikeouts/7 walks). Only three other pitchers have had a month with 30 or more innings pitched and an ERA under 0.60. The last was Cliff Lee, who did it in June and August of 2011. Tommy Greene did it in May of ’91 and Lee Meadows accomplished the feat in July of 1919.

Wheeler’s shortest outing of the season came in June when he went five innings against the Mets, but even that outing was pretty good as he allowed four hits and three walks while striking out eight and shutting out New York through his outing. He left because his pitch count had reached 97. The month also featured his longest outing of the season when he threw eight shutout innings against the Padres on Monday. On the season, Wheeler is 8-3 with a 2.27 ERA.

Wheeler was also the last Phillies pitcher to be named NL Pitcher of the Month when he won the award in May of 2022. That month, Wheeler posted a 1.65 ERA in 32.2 innings of work and had an 8:1 strikeout to walk ratio (40 strikeouts/5 walks).