Phillies' Zack Wheeler 'caught off guard' when pulled from Game 6

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The Philadelphia pitcher was surprised that he was pulled in the sixth in the World Series finale against the Houston Astros.

Wheeler was surprised by the Astros winning the title. It's difficult to take that pill. It's Rob Thomson's call and he made it.

The Astros put runners on first and third with one out after Jeremy Pena bounced a single up the middle, but thePhillies were up by one.

Wheeler threw 70 pitches in his best game of the playoffs. His last two were over 100 mph.

Thomson replaced him with Jose Alvarado, who promptly gave up a 450-foot home run to the Astros left fielder. The lead never changed.

Thomson said he thought Wheels still had good stuff after Wheeler was pulled. It was not about that. I thought the match-up was better with Alvarado on the other side.

In the regular season, he struck out and hit into double plays at the same rate as he struck out against lefties.

Wheeler said it was difficult. I wanted to pitch. It's going to happen that way. It's not likely to happen in the game.

The home crowd roared and the Astros went on to win the World Series.

Are you talking about that pitch? "I said so." There was nothing going on. The thing did not move. He had no chance of it moving.

The sound off the bat says, "OK, that's gone."

Thomson used to make the decision in the middle of the game. His teammates knew it was coming.

J.T. Realmuto said that it was a difficult decision because of how good Alvy was for the team. The ball was thrown for us byWheels. There are two lefties in the next three. They had circled that pocket before the game.

"Thomson has been pretty aggressive with him throughout the entire playoffs, and that's been a winning formula for us."

In the last three games of the series, the Philadelphia offense scored a combined three runs while the Astros only gave up one. Getting no-hit in the fourth game was included.

They have good pitchers. There were a lot of breaking balls landing in the zone.

In the last 31 games, the Phils were 0 for their last 31 with 17 strikeouts against breaking pitches and were chased more against that type of pitch than in the first three games. The top five hitters in the lineup went a combined.069 with 25 strikeouts.

"We didn't get it done," he said. We did not complete it.

The team vowed to be back in the playoffs next year, citing needed experience from this season as a jump off point. They think going through struggles to start the year made them stronger for the stretch run.

"I don't know if anyone thought we'd be here, given where we were at at certain points of the season," he said. Next year and the year after, we expect to be here.

There are no major free agents, the manager has a two-year extension, and the team has experience in the playoffs.

During the first year of the expanded playoffs, Nick Castellanos was asked what he had learned, as Philadelphia made it all the way to the World Series.

Castellanos said how tight the playoffs are. How important base running is, how important defense is. All it takes is one shot in the water and you're good to go.

The home run was hit on Saturday. The run they went on to get to that moment didn't take away from the fact that it sunk their chances as an underestimation.

The disappointment of the night was mixed in with a sense of pride as players high-fived and hugged each other in the locker room, knowing their season was over but happy with the effort they gave.

Kyle Schwarber said they were proud of what they accomplished. We fought until the end. It was all done by a group of people. It's really cool.

It was fun to play with these guys. The group of guys I played with were the closest to me.