Sep 18, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola (27) pitches in the first inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
After each of Aaron Nola's previous two starts, neither of which he made it through five innings, Phillies manager Rob Thomson reiterated - as he has countless times before about his trusty No. 2 starter - that he's not concerned about Nola and his ability to bounce back from a bad outing or two.
And while there's certainly a segment of folks who would argue that Thomson is just providing lip service and that there is reason to question Mr. Consistent's inconsistency, especially at this time of year when they can make a good case to back up their dissent with the Phillies bench boss, for one night, in an important matchup, against a very good team, Nola proved his manager prescient - again.
Nola needed to have a good start - both for the ballclub and for himself. And the Phillies wanted to see him be more like himself in a game against a potential playoff opponent as they contemplate whether to start Nola or Cristopher Sanchez in a potential Game 2 of the NLDS.
He delivered, but the bats didn't, and the Phillies lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 in walk off fashion in the bottom of the ninth, and the playoff clinching celebration was delayed by at least one more day as the Phillies will have to bring the champagne and Budweiser to New York with them in hopes of celebrating this weekend.
Nola was gone from the game by the time it ended, but he did throw seven innings and allowed just three hits and one run - a solo homer by former teammate Rhys Hoskins - all while striking out nine batters.
The Brewers have only hit 2 homers in 50 innings against the Phillies this season — both of them Rhys Hoskins, off Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler.
Nola was much more himself, commanding his fastball and spotting pitches on the black while generating swing and miss with his curve ball.
Nola threw 97 pitches. Only 15 balls were put in play. He had 16 called strikes and 14 swings-and-misses.
"He was really good," Thomson said. "His stuff was good. He got outs with his change up. His breaking stuff was sharp and from the third inning on, he was really good."
Nola didn't give up a run in the first two innings, but he did have some longer counts. He was just missing with the fastball to a couple hitters but got through it anyway unscathed.
"There are certain guys who are big game guys, and he's one of them," Thomson said. "That's why I don't worry about a guy having back-to-back poor performances, because he'll get it going again."
It had to be refreshing for the Phillies because offensively, the game was alarming.
The Phillies struck out 16 times Wednesday. They also struck out 16 times Tuesday. That's a lot.
And by not providing Nola much offense, they snapped the Phillies winning streak of most consecutive wins when a starter throws at least seven innings at a franchise-record 33 games.
The only run scored on this Alec Bohm homer:
Alec Bohm gets things started for the @Phillies 💪@Casamigos | #MLBNShowcase | #RingTheBell pic.twitter.com/4g5AkaO1rC
Other than that, the Phillies offense was pretty uncompetitive all night.
"Sixteen punch outs the last two nights - that's a lot," Thomson said. "We got to get back to our two-strike approach, use the field and eliminate chase. It's frustrating to lose."
It's something that will have Phillies fans lamenting as October approaches, but like with Nola, Thomson has remained confident that his lineup will hit and Bohm echoed the sentiment after the game.
"I don't think it's anything to really freak out about or anything like that," Bohm said. "We could put the ball in play more but we're also going up against a really good pitching staff over there. It would be nice to put the ball in play a little more here and there, but I don't think it's anything we're going to go bang our heads against the wall about to try and figure out why we are striking out so much. I don't think it's going to be a thing we keep seeing."
The end of the game almost was one for the record books.
Jackson Chourio led off with a triple. the Phillies then intentionally walked Wilson Contreas, and he took second base via defensive indifference. After Carlos Estevez struck out Garrett Mitchell, Willy Adames worked a walk to load the bases. Jake Bauers then hit the game-winning single.
However, Adames never touched second base.
Had there been two outs, this would have been insane, because the Phillies could have gotten the force out at second base, negating the run scoring at home. After the game, Thomson kept two Phillies on the field (a requirement for any out to occur and asked the umpires if the other base runners had reached their bags. If one other, besides Adames had not, the Phillies could have turned a double play while the Brewers were celebrating, and the winning run would have come off the board. However, the umps confirmed for Thomson that the other runners safely advanced to the next bag, so the game ended, but can you imagine the chaos had something like that occurred?
