As it turns out, Aaron Nola does have a little flair for the dramatic. The veteran pitcher, who has been much maligned this season and for good reason, delivered the type of outing that we have all craved for him to turn in. Nola went eight full innings on 90 pitches and in doing so, moved up a notch on the list of all-time strikeouts by Phillies pitchers.
Nola (5-10, 6.01) allowed just two hits and did not walk a batter in the outing, collecting nine strikeouts. Nola entered the season ranked fourth among Phillies pitchers in strikeouts all-time. Earlier in the season he moved past Cole Hamels (1,844) and Friday night he put himself in second place when he struck out James Outman with an 88 mile-per-hour changeup in the top of the third. With that K, Nola passed Robin Roberts (1,871) and went into second. Nola will finish his career in second since the all-time leader, Steve Carlton, has 3,031 in his Phillies career, a mark that Nola won’t reach. Nola can say that he has the most strikeouts of any right-handed Phillies pitcher in history.
The only run allowed by Nola came in the top of the sixth on a home run by Christian Vazquez. Nola whiffed Edouard Julien all three times that Julien came to the plate, including to leadoff the eighth inning. He also struck out Ryan Jeffers twice.
The Phillies scored a run in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Alec Bohm that plated Kyle Schwarber who had singled and went to third on a single by Bryce Harper. Edmundo Sosa, who hit three home runs two nights ago, launched a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth to give him 11 on the season. Bohm later scored a run when he led off the sixth with a single and scored when Brandon Marsh doubled to bring him home with the third run of the game.
Jhoan Duran, who has been a little shaky out of the bullpen lately, came on to get his 32nd save, but it wasn’t easy. The twins had runners on second and third – the tying runs – with two outs before he got Trevor Larnach to fly out to right to end the game.
The Phillies are still alive in their quest to have the best record in the National League with Milwaukee falling to the Cincinnati Reds last night 3-1 in Milwaukee. The Brewers need to lose each of the next two games and the Phillies need to sweep Minnesota for Philadelphia to get the top seed and home field advantage throughout the playoffs and World Series. Meanwhile, the Reds used that win and a loss by the Mets in Miami to control their own destiny as they are tied with the Mets for the final wild card, but hold the tie-breaker between the two teams.
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