Ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the Marlins, interim manager Don Mattingly said he would be happy with five innings from starter Aaron Nola.
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“That’s really what you’re asking from really any of our guys,” he said. “Keep us in the game, through the middle of the game.”
After a rocky start to the season, Nola has been reliably doing just that. But he surpassed those expectations Wednesday, delivering seven innings of one-run ball in the 4-1 win over Miami.
It was just the second time Nola has finished seven innings this season. He kept the Marlins off balance with his knuckle curve on the way to the Phillies’ series sweep and sixth straight win. He recorded seven of his eight strikeouts and 12 total whiffs on the pitch. Nola did not walk a batter.
“He’s been good here a long time,” Mattingly said afterward, “and he’s actually been pretty good this year, for a long time now. So it was good.”
Nola surrendered a solo homer to Javier Sanoja in the sixth — marking his eighth straight start allowing a home run — but that was one of just five hits he allowed. Homers have continued to be an issue for Nola, who is averaging a career-high 2.04 home runs per nine innings, but that can be manageable when he limits them to solo shots.
Nola kept his composure, even as the Marlins threatened with back-to-back singles. After a mound visit from pitching coach Caleb Cotham, he rebounded to strike out Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernández on curveballs.
“Breaking ball was really good tonight, but still the mix is good with him,” Mattingly said. “He’s always mixing, and not really ever giving in to the middle of the plate.”
Although Nola had escaped a jam in the sixth inning, Mattingly was confident enough in how he had been throwing the ball to send him back out for the seventh. Nola pitched a 1-2-3 inning, capping it with his eighth strikeout on his 100th pitch of the night.
He exited to a standing ovation.
“It was good. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the seventh,” Nola said.
In four starts in the month of August, Nola has a 2.74 ERA. His ERA across the first four months of the season was 5.61. He can’t pinpoint to one single adjustment that has spurred his turnaround, but Nola said that all his pitches have felt sharper recently.
“Lately I’ve been feeling pretty good. Body and arm, arsenal’s been feeling pretty good, and I just want to keep it up and keep having good work weeks,” he said.
In their first two wins against the Marlins this series, the Phillies hadn’t hit a single homer. But on Wednesday, they finally found the seats. And it was from the unlikeliest suspect.
Luis Arraez hit a two-run shot off his former Miami teammate Sandy Alcantara in the third inning, just his sixth homer of the season and second in a Phillies uniform since the Aug. 3 trade.
“I just tried to find a barrel, and thank God I hit it out,” Arraez said. “And I mean, I think that ball in San Francisco is a double, but here it’s a homer.”
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According to StatCast data, Arraez was right. The long line drive would not have cleared the wall in 11 other major league ballparks, including his former haunt of Oracle Park.
But since it happened at Citizens Bank Park, Arraez drove in Bryce Harper, who extended his on-base streak to 23 games and his walk streak to 10 games by working a seven-pitch walk from Alcantara.
Also an unusual sight was Kyle Schwarber scoring from first on a double from Trea Turner in the seventh. The relay from the outfield beat Schwarber to the plate, but he managed to swim around the tag for an insurance run. He was initially called out, but it was overturned after replay review.
“Schwarber hit him with the hesi. That was pretty cool,” said Brandon Marsh. “Big insurance run that we needed. Big hit out of Trea, and yeah, that was that was a big run for us.”
Marsh had some highlight-reel plays of his own in left field. He made a sliding grab on a line drive in the seventh inning to help out Nola, and then climbed the wall in the corner to snag a foul ball over the outstretched gloves and hats of the fans in that section in the eighth.
“I got to thank the guy standing over there for kind of pulling away at the last second, because I think he had first dibs on it before me, I feel like,” Marsh said. “So he moved over a little bit and helped me have the room to catch it.”
The Phillies scored an early run in the second inning on three consecutive two-out singles. With the bases loaded, catcher Garrett Stubbs sent a soft grounder to shortstop, and managed to beat out Otto Lopez’s throw to first for an infield hit. Stubbs picked up another single in the seventh.
Nola passed the baton to Jonathan Bowlan and Jhoan Duran for a scoreless eighth and ninth inning, respectively. Duran recorded his 28th save of the season.
After being swept out of South Florida by the Marlins last month, the Phillies have now returned the favor.
“It was big for us,” Marsh said. “Just not been the second half that we’ve really wanted, but we’re still in it, and love where we’re at. It’s a good team over there. They pitched well, so it was really big for us to take three, especially here at home.”
Tony Gwynn Jr. is a former major league outfielder and son of late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. Over the last two years, he got to know new Phillies second baseman Luis Arraez, whose contact skills at the plate often draw comparisons to Gwynn. Tony Jr. joined Phillies Extra to discuss his father, Arraez, and the bonds that connect them. Watch here.
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