The Phillies looked good playing in an Iowa cornfield. Kyle Schwarber homered twice and Aaron Nola gave the Phillies five innings of one run ball to lead the Phils to a 7-1 win over the Minnesota Twins.
Schwarber deposited the third pitch of the game into the corn for a quick 1-0 Phillies lead and then went deep again in the fourth for a two-run shot. Brandon Marsh also homered in the game to drive in two seventh inning runs that put the game away.
Even though Nola needed 97 pitches, he made it through five innings and gave up one run on five hits and three walks. He also struck out nine batters in the game. The only run he allowed was a second inning home run to Luke Keaschall, the 30th home run allowed by Nola in 130 innings of work.
The most important part of Nola’s outing was that he didn’t seem to have any lingering effects from a knee contusion that forced him to leave his last start after being hit by a line drive. Nola’s season ERA is still high at 5.33, but considering he entered July with a 6.04 ERA, the Phillies will take the improvement. Since the start of July, which encompasses eight starts, Nola has posted a 4.00 ERA and has allowed 20 earned runs over 45 innings of work. Even with the improvement, the win was the first for Nola since May 26 when he allowed two earned runs over six innings in a 4-3 win over San Diego.
“It was really nice to pitch in one of these games; really nice to pitch here,” said Nola. “Beautiful field, beautiful scenery, fans were great. So it was really cool to check this one off, and I definitely will look back at this later on in my career and after I’m done.”
After a prolonged post All-Star Game power outage, Schwarber now has two multi-home runs games in the last five games he has played. He has also driven in eight runs over those five games and has more walks (6) than strikeouts (4). To go slightly deeper, Schwarber has hits in seven of the last eight games, with multiple hits in four of those games and is batting .367 (11-for-30) during the stretch.
Another hitter who has been struggling is Luis Arraez, who was batting just .200 (8-for-40) since joining the Phillies at the trade deadline. Arraez had three hits in the game for the Phillies.
The Phillies and Twins now have a Friday off-day before restarting the series at Target Field in Minneapolis on Saturday. Jesus Luzardo (10-5, 3.32) will pitch for Philadelphia and Connor Prielipp (3-5, 4.79) starts for Minnesota.
Please scroll down to comment on this story or to give it a rating. We appreciate your feedback!
Disclaimer: Some of the products featured or linked on this website may generate income for Philly Baseball News through affiliate commissions, sponsorships, or direct sales. We only promote items we believe in, but please assume that PBN may earn a cut from qualifying purchases that you make using a link on this site.
© 2026 LV Sports Media. All rights reserved.
