Sep 26, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola (27) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Citizens Bank Park. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
PHILADELPHIA - Aaron Nola wasn't thinking about a perfect game. Funny, there were 40,000-plus people who were.
In what was his best start of the season, and probably the best start in the last 16 months, Aaron Nola retired the first 17 batters he faced, and ended up allowing just two hits and one run through eight innings in a 3-1 Phillies win over the Minnesota Twins.
In a season marred by ineffectiveness and injuries, Nola wrapped up his regular season with a gem. It was, vintage Nola - and it might be just what the Phillies needed to see to hand him the ball for a playoff start at some point.
"Nola is who he is for a reason," said catcher J.T. Realmuto, who had the best view of Nola's outing. "He's been really good for us for a long time. Especially coming off a start like that, the confidence is definitely high with him."
Nola was precise. He struck out nine and didn't walk a batter. He commanded all of his pitches well and kept hitters off balance. Most impressively, he kept his velocity on his fast ball up through the eighth inning. He touched 94 earlier in the game but was throwing 93 in his final frame.
He also passed Robin Roberts to move into second place (1,876) on the Phillies all-time strikeout list behind only Steve Carlton (3,071).
Aaron Nola now has the second-most strikeouts in franchise history 🙌
Way to geaux, Nols! pic.twitter.com/2ocNK4ubR5
"He was fantastic," said manager Rob Thomson. "That's who he is. With a guy like Nols, you know how hard he works, how hard he prepares, the competitor that he is - you know it's there, ya know? So, I don't worry about him at all. I really don't."
That's some deep faith by the manager, but it's understandable. Nola has had a forgetful season. He made just 17 starts. He finished 2025 with a record of 5-10 and an ERA of 6.01 across 94 1/3 innings. His WHIP was higher than it usually is at 1.35, but that's not an awful number. Nola was done in in many of his starts by one bad inning.
He avoided that on Friday.
The closest he came to having that uh-oh inning was in the seventh when former teammate Kody Clemens led off with a triple. Earlier this season, that run would score easily on Nola in one of the next couple batters. Sometimes, it snowballed from one hit to another, to another.
Not on this night.
Nola rebounded and struck out the next two hitters - Ryan Jeffers swinging on a four-seamer above the strike zone, and Trevor Larnach looking on a perfect two-seamer on the black. He then got Brooks Lee to hit a can of corn to left field to end the inning without any damage.
Aaron Nola is through seven innings at 80 pitches👀
(via @PitchingNinja) pic.twitter.com/MtLfsstBbx
"That was a cool inning," Nola said. "That was a big one. The first two strikeouts were big and then the pop up. ... I just tried to bear down as much as possible and make my pitches."
Nola had a perfect game going until there were two outs in the sixth inning when Twins catcher Christian Vazquez jumped on a first pitch two-seamer that Nola left a little too far out over the plate, and he hit it into the first row of seats in left field to break it up.
Nola insisted he wasn't thinking about being perfect at that point because it was still too soon in his mind.
"I've gotten into the seventh before with that," Nola said. "I feel like you got to get through seven before you can start thinking about it."
What Nola did do well though, is pitch a little backwards. He was using his curveball and changeup in fastball counts when getting behind hitters to get back into the at bat.
"We were trying to stay unpredictable," Nola said. "The changeup was pretty good tonight so we kind of went with it a little bit more."
Nola threw 19 change-ups, 14 to lefties. He generated 10 swings, seven were put in play, all seven were outs.
How Nola will be used in the postseason remains to be seen.
Rob Thomson was encouraged by Aaron Nola’s start in Arizona, and he told @GraceDelPizzo that Nola improved across the board tonight.
“He was just better. That’s the best he’s been all year.” pic.twitter.com/eHKtS6fOgF
"I think he could (pitch out of the bullpen)," Thomson said. "But that doesn't mean he's not going to start either."
He's likely going to be a piggy-back reliever for one of the lefties in the Division Series, but he could also start a game or two after that if the Phillies make a deep run.
Nola said he hasn't pitched out of the bullpen since his freshman year at LSU, so it's been a while. But he's ready.
“I'll do whatever, man,” Nola said. “Do whatever to help the guys win. Everybody's goal is the same in here. We want to get back to the World Series and win it. It's a long road to there. It starts with the DS and we've got to play good baseball.”
Good baseball. The Phillies got the best version of that from Nola on Friday. Maybe, just in the nick of time.
