World Series rainout could be a blessing for Phillies pitchers, but red flags remain for Zack Wheeler

As the World Series changed locations Monday, the Phillies were faced with using a starting pitcher who has worked a total of 5⅓ innings since the end of the regular season and an ace who needs as much rest as possible before getting on a mound again.

Nice time for a rainout, wasn’t it?

With persistent heavy showers in the forecast, Major League Baseball postponed Game 3 until Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park while preserving a travel day later in the series. The scheduling changes would appear to aid the Phillies, whose pitching plans against the Houston Astros suddenly look less messy.

Rather than giving the ball to Noah Syndergaard in the pivotal Game 3, manager Rob Thomson will revert to the original plan of starting Ranger Suárez, who is also lined up now to start a potential Game 7.

Just as important, maybe even more so, Zack Wheeler will get an additional day of rest for his sore left knee and tired right arm before starting Game 6 on Saturday night in Houston, assuming the series goes that far after the teams split the first two games.

Thomson might as well have cartwheeled into a post-rainout news conference Monday night.

“It’s the right decision, really,” Thomson said. “I think everybody would rather just play in dry conditions. We know we’re going to get it in. It’s going to be fair for everybody, and we’ll go get it.”

» READ MORE: Astros vs. Phillies Game 3 odds, predictions: Expect more early scoring in World Series

But not at Wheeler’s expense. The Phillies could have moved him up to start Game 5, now set for Thursday night, on regular rest. The fact that they aren’t is the clearest signal yet that something isn’t right as he reaches the finish line of the longest season of his career.

Wheeler’s fastball maxed out at 96.9 mph Saturday night in Houston from 99.5 mph six days earlier. He also threw fewer fastballs than usual. Wheeler and Thomson are insisting that the pitcher’s knee isn’t an issue after he got hit by a line drive in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

“He’s fine,” Thomson said. “It’s just it’s late in the season, velocity’s dropped a little bit. I just feel like he needs more time.”

Wheeler acknowledged after Game 2 that he may have hit a wall, chalking up the velocity slide to being “just late in the season.” Thomson shot down a question about whether Wheeler is experience a recurrence of the elbow inflammation that caused him to miss five starts late in the season.

”He’s fine,” Thomson said. “It’s fatigue.“

In that case, the rain will buy Wheeler an extra day to catch his breath.

Save for Wheeler, Thomson has been aggressive with using his most trusted pitchers in the postseason. He turned to Suárez to close out the NLCS and used him out of the bullpen in Game 1 against the Astros. Suárez entered a tie game in the seventh inning and retired Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, Houston’s dangerous left-handed hitters.

Two innings later, the Phillies stole a 6-5 victory on J.T. Realmuto’s go-ahead solo homer in the 10th inning.

The Suárez Gambit worked.

But the Phillies would’ve faced the flip side of Thomson’s gamble in Game 3. Suárez needed an additional day of rest, leaving Syndergaard to face the Astros. It would have been only the second game in the postseason when the Phillies didn’t have Wheeler, Nola, or Suárez available to pitch.

The rain took care of that, too.

» READ MORE: Phillies will have to ride big bats if they are to win the World Series

“I’m focused on pitching [Tuesday],” Suárez said through a team translator before Game 3 was postponed. “Ever since I was a kid, [the World Series] has been a dream of mine. So, I’m just trying to go out there and do my best.”

There’s still a potentially problematic game on the docket for the Phillies. Syndergaard is slated to start Game 5, Thomson said, unless he’s needed out of the bullpen before then, in which case Kyle Gibson would get the nod.

Either way, it figures to be a challenge to piece together 27 outs.

Syndergaard isn’t likely to get through the Astros’ order more than once. Gibson, meanwhile, pitched well through the middle of the season, struggled badly in September, and was the last player to be included on the postseason roster. He has pitched only 1⅓ innings in a mop-up role in Game 2 of the NLCS.

But MLB’s decision to maintain the off-day will allow Thomson to exhaust the bullpen in Game 5, another scheduling boon for the Phillies, who have leaned heavily on Seranthony Domínguez, José Alvarado, and Zach Eflin.

“We can empty our bullpen, so to speak,” Thomson said.

The Phillies will remain an underdog against the Astros, who have the pitching depth to get through the rest of the series regardless of the schedule changes. Astros manager Dusty Baker said his rotation will remain the same: curveball artist Lance McCullers Jr. in Game 3, followed by right-hander Cristian Javier in Game 4.

Baker said the Astros would consider bringing back ace Justin Verlander on normal rest in Game 4. But like the Phillies with Wheeler, they seem inclined to give him an extra day off. The Phillies came back from a 5-0 deficit against Verlander in Game 1.

If it’s Game 3 of the World Series in Philadelphia, rain will be a factor. Game 3 in 1993, 2008, and 2009 were all delayed by rain.

“It’s part of the game. You can’t control the weather,” Baker said. “You just deal with it. It affects both teams.”

Some more than others.

Advantage, Phillies?

It certainly can’t hurt.