Zack Wheeler made the most out of his first career postseason start in the Philadelphia Phillies' 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of their NL wild-card series.

Wheeler did not earn the win in the game, although he did have his way against a stout Cardinals lineup. The veteran right-hander logged 6.1 scoreless innings in the contest and allowed a mere two hits. He also recorded four strikeouts and tallied eight swings and misses on the day.

In what turned out to be a hectic game, Phillies manager Rob Thomson came away much pleased with Wheeler’s outing in the series opener.

“I thought he was great,” Thomson said during his post-game press conference. “Velocity was up. He felt fine the entire time. I thought his slider was good. He threw a couple of good hooks.

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“Yeah, I thought he was really, really good. He was getting towards the end of his pitch count, and we were coming into a stretch of lefties. That's why I went to Alvarado, and Alvarado gives up the first home run he's given up in, what, three months or something. That's the way it is, but we fought back.”

Wheeler threw 96 pitches against the Cardinals, as he tallied 95-plus pitches for the first time in nearly two months. As Thomson touched on, the one-time All-Star's high pitch count factored into his call to remove him from the contest in the seventh inning. And while the Phillies did head into the 9th inning trailing by a 2-0 score, the offense picked up for Wheeler and the bullpen by scoring a keen six runs to stun those in attendance at Busch Stadium.

The Phillies will now look to punch their ticket to the NLDS with a possible win in Game 2 of the wild-card series on Saturday.