WATCH: Toronto hitting coach David Popkins ejected after crying about Zack Wheeler’s foot coming off the rubber as he was delivering pitches

Zack Wheeler smirked, looked into the Blue Jays’ dugout, and mouthed a “fuck you” right at them Friday night, and honestly, it was the most enjoyable part of an otherwise frustrating 5-4 loss at Citizens Bank Park.

Toronto spent the entire game jawing at Wheeler over some manufactured complaint about his delivery, got their hitting coach tossed for it, and Zack Wheeler, being the absolute competitor he is, let them know exactly how he felt about the whole thing.

The Blue Jays Invented a Problem Because They’re Bad

The Blue Jays had an issue with Zack Wheeler’s windup, claiming his back foot comes off the rubber toward the first-base side during his delivery. It’s a claim Zack Wheeler had never even heard until this year.

Home-plate umpire John Tumpane ejected Toronto hitting coach David Popkins with two outs in the top of the fourth after the Jays had been barking about it from the very first inning.

Zack Wheeler to Toronto hitting coach David Popkins:

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The whole thing is nonsense. As Mattingly explained, the Phillies have already looked at the video and had conversations with MLB about it. The angle of the center-field camera makes it LOOK like Wheeler’s foot is off, but when you pull up the overhead angle, he’s clearly on the rubber.

The data backs it up. This isn’t some hidden violation the Blue Jays cracked the case on. It’s a camera-angle illusion that they decided to weaponize because they’ve got nothing better to do.

Zack Wheeler summed it up perfectly.

"They've lost a lot of games over there so they're probably trying to pick some things up to complain about."

Zack Wheeler didn't mince any words 👀 | @WapnerNewman pic.twitter.com/P0LMMhGTOP

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) August 8, 2026

“I’ve been pitching over here forever, and I’m gonna keep doing it. They’ve lost a lot of games over there, so they’re probably trying to pick some things up to complain about.”

That’s the whole story right there. Toronto won the AL pennant last year and has since face-planted to a 55-62 record, so now they’re reduced to yelling about a guy’s foot placement to feel something.

When your season is in the toilet, I guess you start grasping at anything.

The issue apparently first got raised after the Phillies’ nationally televised game against the Mets on June 21, but the Blue Jays were the first opponent classless enough to openly complain about it mid-game.

When Popkins yelled “Get him on the rubber!” in the fourth, Tumpane tossed him, Wheeler looked into the third-base dugout, and mouthed his expletive directly at the hitting coach. Elite behavior. Don’t poke the bear.

Even Their Manager Had to Admit Wheeler Is Elite

The funniest part is that Blue Jays manager John Schneider basically undercut his own team’s complaint.

“Zack Wheeler is an unbelievable pitcher and has been for a long time. I have all the respect in the world for him. This dude’s been pitching at an elite level for his entire career.”

I mean that’s nice and all, framing the whining from his staff just protecting the players, but at the same time you don’t spend the night complaining about the foot of a guy you’re simultaneously calling one of the best pitchers alive.

Zack Wheeler Was Grinding Last Night

On a night the Phillies desperately needed length from Wheeler because the bullpen is gassed, he gutted his way through it despite not having his sharpest stuff. He gave up a run apiece in the second, third, and fourth, then rattled off a clean, efficient nine-pitch fifth before the sixth inning turned into something out of a fever dream.

At 101 pitches with two on and one out, Wheeler ran into Nathan Lukes, who proceeded to foul off TEN pitches in a 15-pitch war that finally ended with a line-drive single to load the bases.

Please enjoy the entirety of Nathan Lukes' 15-pitch at-bat. pic.twitter.com/CnADknBRNO

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 8, 2026

That 15-pitch at-bat tied the longest of Wheeler’s entire career, and get this, the only other 15-pitch battle he’s ever had also came against the Blue Jays, back in 2022, except that one ended with a strikeout. This one was the longest at-bat ending in a hit against any Phillies pitcher since pitch-count data started being tracked in 1988.

By the time the inning was over, Wheeler had ballooned to 116 pitches, his most since 2021, and issued five walks, his most since 2019 when he was still with the Mets. Somehow through all of it, the noise from Toronto’s dugout and the marathon at-bats and the elevated pitch count, Zack Wheeler walked off with it still a 3-2 game.

That’s the definition of grinding. That’s an ace competing his tail off on a night he didn’t have his best, keeping his team in it against a group that spent the whole night trying to get in his head.

Phillies Offense Wasted All of It

Of course, the Phillies couldn’t reward him. This one falls squarely on the bats, because the missed opportunities were staggering.

Fifth inning: runners on second and third with nobody out for the top of the order, and Schwarber, Turner, and Harper struck out in succession. Three straight punchouts from the heart of the lineup with the go-ahead runs in scoring position and nobody out. Inexcusable.

Seventh inning: bases loaded, and Luis Arraez, of all people, lined out to end the threat. Even the contact king couldn’t cash it in.

Ninth inning: down three, they loaded the bases with NOBODY out. They scratched it to a one-run game and still had the bases loaded with just one out, and then Alec Bohm chopped one over the mound for a force out at home, and Brandon Marsh grounded out to end the game. Bases loaded, one out, down one, and they couldn’t push across the tying run.

There’s not much else to say. When you load the bases three separate times, including with nobody out in the ninth, and come away with a loss, that’s a failure of situational hitting, plain and simple.

Zack Wheeler Deserved So Much Better

Wheeler stared down the Blue Jays and won that battle. The Phillies just couldn’t win the actual game. Do better in those spots, get your ace a win he earned ten times over, and stop wasting quality starts, because there aren’t enough of them to keep throwing away.

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