Zack Wheeler took the field Saturday night and led the Phillies to their first weekend goal: to at least tie their final series of the season against the rival Braves.

The Phillies ace threw seven scoreless innings in a 3-0 victory. He is 13-6 with a 2.63 ERA and 0.98 WHIP and remains tied with Atlanta’s Chris Sale (15-3, 2.58, 1.02) in the National League Cy Young race.

“Yeah, I hope so,” Wheeler said when asked if he felt he was well-positioned to win the award. “You come into the season and that’s one of your personal goals and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with personal goals because if you set them and achieve them or even come close to them, you help the team out tremendously and that’s all I try to do every year, is be the best I can be.”

By winning at least two of their four games against the Braves this weekend, the Phillies would be assured of a five- or seven-game lead in their division after Sept. 1. With no direct matchups, the Braves will have a hard time closing in on that lead.

Wheeler retired the first six batters he faced, just like Ranger Suarez did Friday night. But while Suarez fell apart in the third and fourth innings, Wheeler kept hitting runs.

The Phillies’ infield made things tough in the top of the third with an error by Weston Wilson at third base and a poorly executed double-play try by shortstop Trea Turner and second baseman Edmundo Sosa that resulted in just one out. Wheeler managed to finish the inning without damage by hitting Whit Merrifield up and rolling Jorge Soler on a grounder to third.

Sosa, who was honored before the game with the Phillies’ 2024 Heart and Hustle Award, more than made up for his defensive lapse with a 450-foot home run to left-center field off Max Fried in the bottom of the third. It was the Phillies’ second-longest home run of the season, trailing only Turner’s 459-footer (also by Fried) in July. Sosa was enthusiastic, twirling his bat and gesturing toward the dugout to encourage his teammates, then crouched as he crossed home plate.

“The truth is, I felt really good about it, contributing early in the game and giving us a lead,” Sosa said. “I was hitting the ball and looking at the dugout to give them that hype, that energy, to hopefully keep the rally going and score more runs.”

That one run was all Wheeler needed, because he had everything working. He allowed only four hits, all singles. There may be others on his level, but no one better.

Since joining the Phillies before the 2020 season, Wheeler has faced the Braves 16 times in the regular season and has a 2.07 ERA, allowing two or fewer earned runs in 13 of those games.

“I think the brighter the lights, the better the command gets, the better the stuff gets, the better the execution gets,” manager Rob Thomson said. “You can tell when he’s determined and he was tonight. He’s a big-game pitcher. In games like this, you feel like you’re going to get six, seven, eight innings out of him because he’s just determined and he’s pounding the zone like he did tonight.”

The most dangerous at-bat of the night for Atlanta came from the best hitter in baseball, Matt Olson, with one out in the top of the sixth. He hit a ball 401 feet to the middle of the straightaway that looked like a home run off the bat, but was robbed by Johan Rojas, who ran to the wall in time and calmly crossed without jumping. It wasn’t even the most impressive robberies of the night, as Michael Harris II went all Spiderman to take one off Austin Hays in the seventh.

Wheeler followed up the Olson near-homer with a three-pitch strikeout of Travis d’Arnaud that sent the sellout crowd of 42,730 into raptures. Turner kept the momentum going in the home dugout with a leadoff home run in the bottom half of the inning. It was his first home run since Aug. 18 and just his second in 32 games since July 24.

“I just pride myself on big games and big moments,” Wheeler said. “The crowd was electric tonight and I felt it. Anytime they’re there and I’m there, it’s pretty cool to be a part of it. They brought the electricity tonight and I just tried to match it.

Sosa provided more certainty with an RBI double to the right-center gap in the bottom of the seventh. Third-base coach Dusty Wathan aggressively sent the speedy and athletic Wilson all the way from first base, despite Wilson getting a late start and barely working.

The Phillies are 80-56 with 26 games remaining. They all count because the Phils were tied with the Brewers for the 2-seed in the National League playoffs on Saturday, and the difference between second and third is having to play an extra round, likely against these Braves.

It was also the 100th win of Wheeler’s career, a milestone made all the sweeter because the match came against his home team.

“It was special. Number one was against these guys and number 100,” he said. “Number one was back home in Atlanta, where I’m from, and it was really cool to make my debut against that team. I just remember Jason Heyward being my first strikeout and working out with him every offseason. Number 100 against these guys, it was a long road. Just believing in myself, just working hard and winning.”