Phillies can start dreaming about the World Series if Aaron Nola matches Zack Wheeler

Most of his teammates stood on the first-base line when the camera found Zack Wheeler firing pitches in the Phillies bullpen as Citizens Bank Park reached a crescendo Monday night. He was the last player introduced before Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, and the rally-towel waving crowd roared when Dan Baker called his name. Wheeler — eyes locked on catcher J.T. Realmuto while finishing his preparation for another magnificent October night — didn’t flinch.

He has been excellent in the postseason — his 0.70 WHIP is the lowest in postseason history by any pitcher who made at least five starts — thanks to an ability to block out the noise while rising to meet the moment. His velocity spiked, his pitches had more bite, and his focus — steady all night just like in the bullpen when the place is rocking for him — is even sharper.

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“That adrenaline he gets, I think that just makes him hyper focused,” said Realmuto after the Phillies topped Arizona, 5-3, to win the opener. “You can see it in his eyes in the bullpen and throughout the entire game. He’s so focused on doing his job.”

Wheeler’s night — he allowed two runs on three hits in six innings while striking out eight — gave the Phillies their seventh straight Game 1 win in the last two Octobers. Since 1985, the NLCS Game 1 winner has advanced to the World Series 70.3% of the time.

A win Tuesday and the Phils are halfway to a second straight pennant. And it’s hard to imagine the Diamondbacks, who likely will start Game 3 with a pitcher who finished the regular season with a 5.72 ERA before using a bullpen game in Game 4, winning a series if they drop the first two games.

So the Phillies can start dreaming of the World Series if Aaron Nola, who has allowed two runs this month over 12⅔ innings, can match Wheeler on Tuesday in Game 2.

“It definitely gives the team confidence when you have two guys like that at the front of your rotation who are so consistent in big spots and big games,” Realmuto said. “You always feel like they’re going to have it that day, which not many teams can say that about two starters. For us to have those guys at the top, it’s big for our team, and it just gets the early momentum on our side. We’ve won Game 1 of every series we’ve played and that’s a testament to those guys.”

Wheeler’s fastball topped out in the first inning at 96.6 mph, nearly a mph faster than his regular-season average. Arizona’s only hard-hit balls in the first five innings were groundouts. Wheeler retired 15 straight batters after Arizona started the game with a broken-bat single. The D’backs hit nine homers in three games against the Dodgers but Wheeler didn’t allow a hit to their 3-4-5 hitters.

He extinguished a lineup that scorched through the first two rounds. Wheeler ignored the noise but owned the moment.

“It’s hard, but you have to stay calm,” Wheeler said. “You allow yourself to feed off it but you control it. … That first pitch, you can barely hear yourself think. You enjoy these types of moments. They’re not going to last forever.”

Wheeler’s lone two runs scored in the sixth inning, when No. 8 hitter Evan Longoria slapped a single before No. 9 hitter Geraldo Perdomo homered to right. Rob Thomson said he thought Wheeler started to fade “a little bit” in the fifth and sixth inning. But that’s OK.

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Wheeler set the tone by the way he carved through the Diamondbacks lineup, allowing the crowd to remind the visitors that they were louder than the artificial sound they pumped into their ballpark to prepare.

“He was dynamite early,” Thomson said. “It’s command. It’s stuff. It’s power. It’s competitive nature. It’s everything. He is complete.”

The ballpark will be just as wild on Tuesday night when Nola walks to the bullpen and begins to prepare for another postseason start. There is something special, Wheeler said, about walking through the outfield with the crowd cheering. But it was hard to see that he appreciated it as he walked straight like it was a Monday night in May and not the postseason. Then Wheeler took the mound, pitching like it was a Monday night in October. He was excellent all season, but his game has reached a different level in the playoffs.

If Nola does the same on Tuesday, the Phillies will be another win closer to playing into November.

“Ace one and ace two,” Bryce Harper said. “Just because of the way that both of them kind of throw, the way they go about it. It’s a pretty similar approach of how they act in the clubhouse before games and what they do. It’s really cool to see it working out for Wheels, and it just doesn’t surprise me either.”