The Nationals dished out plenty of compliments in Zach Wheeler's direction after yesterday's 13-2 rout of the Mets at Citi Field. And why not? He gave them plenty of presents — one fastball after another over the heart of the plate.
Washington accepted the gifts with open arms as they hammered the rookie right-hander for five earned runs on six hits, including two home runs, in 4 2/3 innings to hand him his first big league loss.
Wheeler struck out six — one fewer than in his debut against the Braves and five more than in his second start in Chicago — but also walked two, got too much of the plate the entire day and routinely fell behind hitters. Of his 89 pitches, 54 were strikes.
"I don't care who you are, when you're getting behind in this league, it doesn't matter if you throw 100 like [Matt] Harvey or you throw 80 like [Jamie] Moyer, it's tough to pitch from behind," Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said.
The Nationals pushed across just two runs in 13 innings against Harvey and Dillon Gee in the first two games of the series, but they doubled that in the second inning alone against Wheeler.
Adam LaRoche jumped on a first-pitch, 95-mph fastball and swatted it over the right-center field fence. After that, Wheeler came unhinged, walking Jayson Werth on four pitches and serving up a fastball Ian Desmond rocketed to the gap in right-center to plate Werth. Kurt Suzuki added a run-scoring single out of shortstop Omar Quintanilla's reach and Denard Span drilled another extra-base hit, an RBI double to center.
Werth took Wheeler deep in the third, tattooing a 93-mph heater over the wall in left.
"You got to like his arm," Nationals manager Davey Johnson said. "He's got a good fastball, good breaking stuff, but it's command. It's always going to be command up here no matter how hard you throw. You have to locate, that's been his problem."
"The scouting report was make him throw his off-speed pitches for a strike," Span said. "He doesn't throw too many for a strike."
Wheeler also struggled putting away hitters. Of the six hits he allowed, three came with two strikes.
Span complimented Wheeler's big arm and thinks he has a bright future. He also noted there are issues he needs to work on.
"He's going to be a good pitcher, but this is the big leagues," Span said.
He didn't expand on the sentence, smiling instead. Span didn't need to go on. The message was clear: Wheeler has a lot of work to do.
zbraziller@nypost.com
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