Categories: 2024 Postgame Recaps

Aaron Nola shines, Nick Castellanos homers as Phillies sweep Brewers

Aaron Nola pitched seven shutout innings on Wednesday. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire)

Final Score: Phillies 2, Brewers 0

Coming into this week, there were only two National League teams that hadn’t been swept — the Brewers and Phillies. But after this week’s three-game series between to the two NL clubs at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies are now the only team in the league to not be the victims of a sweep.

After picking up back-to-back, low-scoring wins on Monday and Tuesday against the Brew Crew, the Phillies finished off the sweep on Wednesday thanks to a strong seven-inning performance from Aaron Nola and a fifth-inning two-run home run by Nick Castellanos.

Nola allowed just two hits over his seven innings of work on Wednesday afternoon. He struck out five Milwaukee batters and walked none. He fired 93 pitches, 68 of which landed for strikes.

After a rather simple first six innings, Nola eventually found himself in trouble in the seventh. But with some help from his defense, he escaped the frame without allowing a run.

After William Contreras led off the seventh with a double, Nola got to work. The right-hander got Christian Yelich to ground out to second base, which advanced Contreras to third. Nola then induced another ground ball. This one was hit to third. Contreras was aggressive and broke home on the play. Alec Bohm fielded the ball and fired it home to catcher Garrett Stubbs, who tagged Contreras out for the second out of the inning. Nola then got Rhys Hoskins to fly out to shallow left field to end the frame.

Castellanos’ fifth-inning homer was his eighth of the year. It also kept his recent hot streak alive. Over his last 15 games entering today, the Phillies’ right fielder had slashed .271/.317/.492. The Phillies have lacked offensive production from their outfield for most of this season, so having Castellanos put together some good at-bats of late is certainly a positive sign.

The Phillies are now 44-19 — a season-high 25 games above the .500 mark.

Highlights

In the top of the third inning, with a runner on first base, Bryson Stott made a leaping grab — something he’s done a couple of other times this year — robbing Gary Sánchez of a base hit.

In the fourth, Cristian Pache flashed his own leather, making a diving grab on a sinking liner in center field to end the inning.
Nick Castellanos’ homer in the fifth came after Kyle Schwarber grounded into a 4-6-3 double play with two runners on. With Garrett Stubbs on third and two outs, Castellanos sent the ball over the left-center field wall.

Here’s Alec Bohm’s heads-up play from the seventh inning that kept the Brewers off the board:

Notes

Before Wednesday’s game, Rob Thomson provided updates on a few injured players, including Ranger Suárez, who is expected to start Saturday’s game in London

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With his seven scoreless innings, Aaron Nola lowered his ERA on the year to 2.77.

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