Final Score: Padres 4, Phillies 3 (10 innings)
The Phillies needed a brilliant outing from Aaron Nola and they got it. Unfortunately, Nola’s best still wasn’t good enough.
For the second time this season, the Phillies have lost on a walk-off wild pitch. Trent Grisham had a chance to win the game with a base-hit, but it wasn’t needed as Andrew Knapp couldn’t block a pitch in the dirt from Connor Brogdon.
The ending negated a brilliant performance from Nola.
He struck out seven consecutive hitters from the second through fourth innings, had a perfect game and no hitter through six and doubled to leadoff the eighth inning. More importantly for Aaron, older brother Austin went 0-for-2 with a walk against him.
But after 112 pitches with two out and one on in the inning, Joe Girardi took a gamble and kept Nola in the game to finish off the ninth. With a 3-1 count, Jake Cronenworth took advantage of a fastball that missed the corner of the plate and buried it for a devastating game-tying home run. Nola has struggled all year because he couldn’t quite finish his innings.
After the loss, the Phillies are now five games out of a playoff spot with 39 games left to play. Players, coaches and front office members won’t say it, but a certain level of panic should be setting in for a team that came into the season with high expectations and playoff aspirations.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Aaron Nola: 8 2/3 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 11 SO, 1 HR, 117 pitches
Nola began the game with a seven-pitch inning and then managed to strikeout seven straight hitters starting an inning later with a three-pitch at-bat to big brother Austin. The next seven at-bats against Nola went as followed: lineout, pop out, pop out, groundout, groundout, pop out and lineout. The Phillies starter is at his best when he can both miss bats and trust his stuff enough to gets outs by pitching to contact. The two-run home run from Cronenworth was crushing to say the least.
Joe Musgrove: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 SO, 1 HR, 99 pitches
This is Musgrove’s second consecutive outing in which his offense came up hitless while he was on the mound. The 28-year-old looked like he was going to provide a repeat of his five inning, six earned run game last time out after the first three batters, but he settled in well. The Phillies swung-and-missed at his superb curveball eight times.
Phillies Nugget Of The Game
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Sunday, August 22 vs. San Diego Padres at Petco Park
- 3:40 p.m. ET
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
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