Philadelphia Phillies Ride Nola's Shutout to Sweep of Cincinnati Reds

The Philadelphia Phillies swept the Cincinnati Reds in a four-game series with help from Kyle Schwarber's mammoth home run and Aaron Nola's spectacular pitching.

Is Aaron Nola an ace? He may have to be one for the coming weeks.

Following the Philadelphia Phillies' placement of #1 starter Zack Wheeler on the injured list, Nola had the best pitching performance of his career.

News broke just before the game that Wheeler isn't expected to be out any longer than the 15-day minimum IL stint. Nevertheless, it still leaves the Phillies short-handed, but Nola helped make up for his ace's absence on Thursday night.

In the midst of his best season since 2018, when Nola had a 2.37 ERA over 212 1/3 innings pitched, he entered the night with his season mark at 3.25. By the end of the evening, his ERA had fallen to 3.08, a precipitous drop for an individual starter so late in the season.

Yet, Nola couldn't have made it as far into the night without a little help for a supporting cast. The Phillies themselves were shutout four times from August 11-17 alone.

Kyle Schwaber got the scoring started in the bottom of the third. His titanic blast off the top of the batter's eye put the Phillies in the driver's seat, a spot they would never relinquish.

Kyle Schwarber’s BOMB for the lead! 💣https://t.co/AtWkA39jan

— Inside the Phillies (@InsidePhilsFN) August 26, 2022

Given Nola's dominant performance, no more help was necessary for his offense. But on a big night from their starter, the Phillies continued to play small ball. 

Catcher Garrett Stubbs bunted for a single in the fifth, followed by a single from Bradley Zimmer that sent Stubbs to third. Edmundo Sosa then sent the catcher home with a sacrifice fly.

That run was almost entirely manufactured by the will and acute baserunning of Stubbs, who did not mince words about his starting pitcher post-game.

“Aaron Nola, I think around the league, is known for his curveball, but tonight he had more than just a curveball,” said Stubbs in an article by Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “And I think that’s probably a big reason he got to complete the game. When you have to think about more than one pitch... I mean, for him, if they’re thinking about his curveball all of the time, you can still throw it because it’s that good. But tonight they had to think about everything. And that makes for kind of a video game back there.”

Nola mixed his pitches expertly. Every at-bat, each hitter had a chance to see one of five different pitches. Foremost actually was the knuckle curve, but Nola threw three other fastballs to great effect.

The cutter, which Nola normally features only about 5% of the time, was thrown 10% of the time Thursday night. His changeup too saw an increased usage. The increase in both of these pitches came at the expense of his his four-seam fastball, a pitch that Nola has consistently allowed home runs off of his whole career.

When Nola completed his gem, he had thrown 101 pitches for 11 strikeouts and no walks, surrendering just five hits, many of which were low exit velocity. His game score was 88 was the second highest for a start in his career, trailing only his other complete game shutout pitched on April 18, 2021.

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