Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler got hit around a bit on Friday night, but his surly mood wasn’t due to poor performance. The Toronto Blue Jays tried in vain to get the umpires to penalize Wheeler for his foot placement on the mound, and the three-time All-Star had some pointed words in response.
The Blue Jays have not had a good season at all. The defending American League champions sit at the bottom of their division with an ugly 56-62 record and ended up as trade deadline sellers last week, shipping out veterans Kevin Gausman, Jeff Hoffman, Daulton Varsho and others. While the club is only a handful games back of a Wild Card spot (somehow), they would need to vault over a whole lot of teams; somewhat of a farfetched scenario.
Conversely, the Phillies are in the midst of a heated playoff race, sitting at 62-56 on the year and maintaining possession of the National League’s final Wild Card spot. Unfortunately, they’ve been leaking oil lately and that carried into a heartbreaking 5-4 loss in the series opener against Toronto.
Phillies fans felt good about their chances coming into that game with Wheeler on the hill, but the veteran labored through 5 ⅓ innings of work, surrendering four earned runs on seven hits and an uncharacteristic five walks. Perhaps one thing that rattled his cage was the constant chirping coming from the Blue Jays’ dugout regarding his usage of the pitching rubber.
The Blue Jays tried to make something out of nothing, and Phillies' Zack Wheeler was having none of it
The controversy revolved around Toronto hitting coach David Popkins who was ejected by home plate umpire John Tumpane in the fourth inning for incessantly drawing attention to Wheeler’s delivery. Popkins and the Blue Jays contended that the Phillies hurler didn’t maintain contact with the pitching rubber throughout his delivery.
Evidently Tumpane disagreed, tossing Popkins from the contest after warning him to back off. While this hullabaloo played out, Wheeler was taking heat from the Blue Jays dugout, in particular light-hitting outfielder Myles Straw. Expletives flew back and forth between the two sides of the controversy before things settled down and the game resumed a few minutes later.
Jays manager John Schneider clarified postgame exactly what his team’s beef was, claiming, “We were just getting information that his foot was off the rubber on the first base side, from video angles with that little step back from the windup.” It’s certainly interesting that throughout Zack Wheeler’s 12-year major league career that criticism has never come up before.
"We were just getting information that his foot was off the rubber on the first base side, from video angles with that little step back from the windup. And I'm just gonna do everything I can to protect my guys, you know what I mean? Again, it's hard to see in real time. ...
— Destiny Lugardo (@destiny_lugardo) August 8, 2026
For his part, Wheeler wasn’t having any of it, telling reporters, “I'm going to keep doing what I do. I've been pitching over there forever, and I'm going to keep doing it.” He went on to posit that Toronto’s complaints could just be venting frustration during a lost season, saying, “They've lost a lot of games over there, so they're trying to pick some things up to complain about.”
Ouch. Not only are the Blue Jays almost certain to miss the playoffs in a year that started with World Series aspirations, but they’re now being publicly mocked (justifiably so) by their opposition. If anyone thought that Zack Wheeler was lacking in confidence before, they certainly won’t think that now.
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