Sep 8, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jhoan Duran (59) celebrates after getting the final out against the New York Mets during the ninth inning at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-Imagn Images
The Phillies knew coming into this series against the archrival Mets, that something had to be different from when they last saw them two weeks ago in New York.
"What happened in New York?" That's what manager Rob Thomson jokingly responded to a reporter's question prior to Monday's game at Citizens Bank Park.
As a reminder, the Phillies were swept by the Mets, outscored in the three games 25-8. The Mets pounded Phillies pitchers for 38 hits in the three games.
Something had to change.
So the gameplan - for Monday at least - was to pitch them differently.
The Phillies had seen that the Mets were aggressive against them, especially early in counts, and also were hunting pitches with velocity and succeeding.
So, this time, there'd be less of that.
The end result? The Phillies shut out the Mets 1-0. They allowed just five hits in the game.
Aaron Nola looked more like his vintage self, commanding the strike zone and keeping hitters off balance. He threw six of those shutout innings and gave up three hits.
Aaron. Nola. Never a doubt
6.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 SO
22.5 Whiff%
30.9 CSW%
85.3 MPH avgEV
54.3% FB usage
40% Whiff-rate on KC (getting > 17” of break consistently now)pic.twitter.com/vZlaPDqncS
David Robertson and Matt Strahm pitched two hitless innings and then Jhoan Duran, who gave up four consecutive hits without recording an out in one of those games at Citi Field, gave up two more hits on Monday, but punched out the last two hitters to preserve the win, extend the Phillies lead in the NL East to eight games and reduce their magic number to clinch the division crown to 11.
And they did it by pitching a little softer.
Now, Nola did throw more fastballs than usual, taking away from the curveball. But they were done to set up his changeup which was especially effective, and he still was getting his most swings and misses on his softer stuff.
"I think you have to keep people off balance," manager Rob Thomson said. Talking specifically about Duran he added, "The splitter's 98. The fastball's 102. You got to change speeds a little bit just to make them think a little bit so they can't sit hard all the time."
It was a theme.
In the three-game sweep in New York two weeks ago, not counting the innings that were set ablaze by one pitcher who is no longer on the Phillies (Joe Ross) and another who is still there in name only (Jordan Romano, who is on the I.L.) The Mets compiled 31 hits, and 23 of them were on pitches with some velocity behind them.
So, the game plan Monday was to change that narrative.
Nola, Robertson, Strahm and Duran combined to throw 132 pitches. Of those 62, or 47%, were off-speed. The foursome combined for 11 strikeouts. 10 of them were swinging strikeouts. Seven of them came on off speed pitches, and an eighth, came on a surprise pitch.
Nola has basically eliminated the cutter from his repertoire. And for good reason - it has not been a good pitch this season. Entering Monday, batters were hitting .409 off it in 2025.
But trusted by Thomson to go out for the sixth inning to face the heart of the Mets order, Nola pulled the cutter out of his back pocket just one time - to strike out Juan Soto.
Aaron Nola threw exactly one (1) cutter tonight. It was on this 1-2 pitch to Juan Soto -- and he struck him out swinging.
Nola mixed it up a bit tonight and kept the Mets guessing, none more so than here against Soto. pic.twitter.com/t9icx8DkDo
"It was something he hadn't seen before," Nola said. "I've toyed with that pitch a little bit over the past few weeks and it felt good coming out of my hand right there."
It was J.T. Realmuto who called the pitch though. Always thinking the game, Realmuto felt like in the moment, it would surprise Soto, who, as one of the sport's great hitters, is always a tough out, regardless of the situation, but this was a high leverage spot as the game was getting late and the Phillies were nursing that one-run lead.
"He's that type of hitter where sometimes you have to think outside the box a little bit," Realmuto said. "I knew he hadn't seen one yet, so he wasn't going to be looking for it, and I just trusted Aaron to execute it and he did.
"When I called it, you take kind of a deep breath because if it doesn't work out then you kick yourself for it, but Aaron threw a great pitch there and it worked out for us."
The strategy of keeping the Mets hitters off balance was never more evident than the ninth inning when Duran entered to close it out.
After blowing the save in New York where all four hits off of him came off of high velocity pitches, Duran threw his curve ball more than any other pitch against the Mets on Monday.
He still got into a little trouble. He gave up two hits - both on splitters - and had both runners in scoring position with just one out, but was able to get out of it by striking out both Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez.
"They do a lot of swinging and I was missing a little bit with my [splitter] today," Duran said. "I was hanging it a little up in the zone. That's why I was going to the curve more."
He did strike out McNeil on a 102 mph fastball at the top of the zone, but he did mix in two curve balls to him and avoided throwing his splitter at all.
Then against Alvarez, he got him chasing three curve balls out of the zone to pick up his 28th save.
Jhoan Duran slams the door on a @Phillies shutout! pic.twitter.com/HMyez4V7np
Going soft with Duran is not something that you usually see, so that was definitely, as Realmuto put it, outside the box.
"Yeah, a little bit, but his stuff is so good, that's what makes him elite," Realmuto said. "He can do different things. You've seen times this year where he's been very splitter-heavy and gotten quick outs and then there are times like tonight where he was able to go away from it and go more four-seam and curveball and still have really good results. That's what makes him such an elite closer."
And it's what made the Phillies game plan against the Mets so effective. And on a night when they were missing three regulars due to injury or illness, and their superstars weren't hitting at all, they needed a perfectly executed pitching game plan.
And from Nola to Duran and everywhere in between, they got it at a time when they needed it most.
