The Phillies lost a tough one on Friday night, as the San Diego Padres took the second contest of this four game set by a score of 1-0. Aaron Nola pitched brilliantly for the Phillies, but was let down by his offense, receiving zero run support. The only run of the game ironically came off the bat of his older brother, Austin, in the form of an RBI single.
Aaron Nola pitched a hell of a game on Friday, going seven strong innings while surrendering seven hits, two walks and the one aforementioned run. He punched out 10 Padres en route to lowering his season ERA mark to 2.98. There’s plenty of blame to go around for this loss, but none of it rests on Nola. Aside from the RBI single to his brother, Nola stymied the Friars all night, and pitched more than well enough to deserve a win. It wasn’t meant to be, however, as the Phillies stranded the bases loaded twice, including in the ninth inning, while ultimately leaving 10 runners on base for the game.
The Phillies just couldn’t get anything going with their bats. Alec Bohm and the resurgent Matt Vierling each notched two base hits, while Rhys Hoskins collected one more. Other than that, there was nothing aside from a handful of walks. No extra base hits, no stolen bases. Not even a sacrifice fly in this one. It’s a tough luck loss for Nola, but he’s used to that.
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The Phils will look to get back on track Saturday night in Petco Park, where Zach Eflin will face off against 2018 Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell. The Phillies jumped on Snell last time the teams met in Philadelphia on 18 May, chasing him from the game with three earned runs in only 3.2 innings pitched. They were successful in working counts and drawing walks, collecting three free passes and forcing Snell to throw 84 pitches despite not getting out of the fourth inning. Hopefully, the Phils can do the same again this time around, and right the ship during a rocky week.