CHICAGO — This probably isn't a very nice thing to say, but there's no doubt which New York right-hander Zack Wheeler evoked last night, in the second start of his major league career.
Would you believe … Phil Hughes?
"He didn't throw a good put-away pitch," Mets catcher John Buck said, after Wheeler drew a no-decision in a game won by the White Sox, 5-4 at U.S. Cellular Field with a wacky ninth inning.
"He had a lot of 3-and-2 counts where they hit a lot of foul balls," Terry Collins said. "He was trying to make pitches, but they kept fighting them off and fighting them off. We've got to figure out a way to have a little bit easier innings."
Sure sounds like the sort of stuff I've been writing about Hughes since the final lap of the George W. Bush presidency.
Of course I'm not condemning the Mets' newest phenom to the fate of being an average starting pitcher. It's preposterously early for any such declaration. Nevertheless, Wheeler reminded us last night that few are the youngsters who arrive at this level as polished as Matt Harvey did last year.
Or, as Wheeler said in a self-assessment, "I've still got a lot of work to do."
The guy who struck out seven in his successful debut last week in Atlanta, who averaged 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings during his 2010-13 climb up the minor leagues, whiffed just one White Sox batter in 5 1/3 innings last night, getting Alex Rios to chase a curveball to finish the fifth inning. He walked three and allowed four hits, whereas his White Sox counterpart Chris Sale struck out 13 in eight innings to put himself in position for the victory before the ninth inning's zaniness — an error by White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham allowed David Wright to score the tying run, only to see the Mets lose it via sloppy play in the bottom of the frame — resulted in Addison Reed and LaTroy Hawkins getting the win and the loss.
Wheeler got 14 swings and misses against the Braves. Last night, he got just five, throwing 109 pitches in total. Fittingly, his night ended in the sixth inning when he induced two quick strikes on Conor Gillaspie, only to lose a 10-pitch battle, featuring four foul balls, with a walk.
You could understand Wheeler's minuscule strikeout count more if the White Sox deployed a deliberately aggressive strategy to keep from falling into bad counts against Wheeler, yet that wasn't the case. Wheeler faced a total of 24 batters, and he got to a two-strike count against 12. Of those 12, Wheeler got ahead by either 0-and-2 or 1-2 on eight.
This inability to stomp on guys when they're down has been a Hughes shortcoming for pretty much his entire time in the majors. So where Wheeler has to differ, in order to meet his projection, is to work through this issue, if it even rises to the level of being an "issue" at this point.
Also a problem: Wheeler has to improve at holding on runners. Three White Sox stole second base on Wheeler, one of them — Alexei Ramirez in the third inning — getting such a jump that Buck didn't even bother making a throw.
"We've also got to do a better job with the running game," Collins said. "We can't let them run wild once they get on. That was something we also picked up today. A slide step has got to be part of [Wheeler's] repertoire with guys on. He can't let them keep getting in scoring position."
A Mets team not in contention means that Wheeler will have some rope to grow and develop in the spotlight.
"No question, Zack's going to get a lot better," Collins said. "He has really good stuff. Really good stuff. ... But you've got to like what you see. Gosh. The live arm, his fastball's got life to it. His curveball today, so much better than in his last start. Now if he finds the slider along with it, you've got three pitches, you've got a lot of outs."
The first encore featured just one third strike, though, and therefore an overall shaky outing. The Mets universe will hope to see far more swings and misses when Wheeler makes his Citi Field premiere Sunday against Washington, so they can shake off visions of Hughes like a bad dream.
kdavidoff@nypost.com
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