Phillies Ace Putting Himself in Position for First Career Cy Young Award

The Philadelphia Phillies earned their 50th win of the season this past Monday night with a shutout victory over the San Diego Padres to get the series started off on the right foot.

While it's always nice to win a big game against a quality opponent, the individual performance from their starting pitcher might have overshadowed the magnitude of the victory.

Phillies ace Zack Wheeler tossed eight shutout innings and struck out 10 Padres hitters all while walking none of them and simply dominating his way through the lineup over and over again.

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The performance brought Wheeler's ERA on the season down to a 2.27 with a 0.907 WHIP and a Major League-leading 4.4 bWAR among starting pitchers. He also leads the National League in strikeouts with 136 in 107 innings.

The 35-year-old is performing so well right now that it's at least worth asking the question whether or not he has a real chance to lock down one thing he is missing on his impressive resume: a National League Cy Young Award.

Wheeler has finished second place in the voting twice, including last season and after his masterful 2021 campaign.

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Right now, he only really has one thing standing between him and the hardware, and it's Pittsburgh Pirates superstar Paul Skenes.

Unfortunately for Wheeler, Skenes is having an incredible season once again in his second year in the big league. However, with the weakness of his team, he is not winning a lot of games.

If the season were to end today, Skenes would still likely get the nod, but there is no denying that Wheeler is creeping closer and closer to the young star.

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The numbers between the two aces are borderline identical except for the fact that Wheeler is striking more out hitters and has double the amount of victories.

Still, it's going to take a special effort from the veteran over the second half of the year to unseat the youngster who seems bound to take it home right now.

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Of course, Wheeler has his eyes on a bigger prize with Philadelphia likely playoff bound and trying to get over that World Series hump. However, there is no question he wants this award badly as well.

As the season starts to hit the dog days of summer and eventual final stretch, the race between Wheeler and Skenes for the most prestigious award a pitcher can get is officially on, and it's shaping up to be an epic one.

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