ATLANTA — For years, the Phillies applied a pitching formula to optimize success in short postseason series.
“Wheeler, Nola, and it’s all o-vah.”
It was their twist on “Spahn, Sain, and pray for rain,” and it worked, at least in best-of-three wild-card series in 2022 and 2023. Now, facing a third elimination game in less than a week Thursday night, they will lean on their two longtime horses again.
Aaron Nola will start Game 3 here against the Braves. Zack Wheeler is expected to be available to follow Nola.
Nola will be on full rest, four days after starting on only two days’ rest and lasting only one inning in a desperate gambit to clinch a playoff spot last Saturday night. But the Phillies will take an “all hands on deck” approach to their pitching plan, interim manager Don Mattingly said Wednesday.
Wheeler, who would be on three days’ rest after starting the regular-season finale, is almost certainly part of that plan. It’s possible the Phillies could take a similar approach to Game 3 of the division series last year in Los Angeles, when Nola faced eight batters in two innings before yielding to fellow starter Ranger Suárez.
Nola said Sunday that he felt “a little bit more [sore], for sure” after his first-ever start on short rest. But he threw a between-starts bullpen session Monday in Atlanta.
“I could throw 40 to 50 pitches in a bullpen, and it’s never going to be the game situation, the adrenaline rush,” Nola said. “But I feel good.”
Aaron Nola (left) and Zack Wheeler, pictured in spring training, will factor into the Phillies’ Game 3 pitching plan, with Nola making the start.David Maialetti / Staff Photographer
Nola has made 41 career starts against the Braves, posting a 3.71 ERA in 252⅓ innings. In three starts this season, he has a 4.50 ERA, with the Braves batting .250 with a .500 slugging percentage.
In the postseason, Nola has twice faced the Braves in a series that was tied at one game apiece. He allowed one unearned run in six innings against the Braves in Game 3 of the 2022 NL division series and two runs in 5⅔ innings in Game 3 of the same round in 2023. The Phillies won both games — and both series.
Jesús Luzardo could possibly sit in the bullpen for Game 3, although it’s unclear if the Phillies would use him on two days’ rest after he missed three weeks in September with an inflamed left shoulder.
Rookie starter Andrew Painter saved the Phillies’ season in Game 2 against the Braves by making his postseason debut as a reliever and tossing three scoreless innings in a 4-3, 10-inning victory.
NBC Sports Philadelphia was first with the news that Nola would start Game 3.
Whether the Phillies experience a Red October remains to be seen, but they are in for a Red September in Atlanta with summerlike temperatures and what looks to be a hitter-friendly atmosphere.
On a Tuesday in which the sun was fighting mightily to prove its existence over Philadelphia — in what has been an unusually gloomy September — the skies over Atlanta were perfectly clear and forecast to stay that way through the next three afternoons.
Highs there Tuesday afternoon should crest in the mid-80s, said Todd Vaughan, meteorologist with the regional National Weather Service in Peachtree, Ga.
That would be about 20 degrees warmer than it was Sunday, when the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays in South Philly to make the postseason.
Temperatures may make a run at 90 degrees Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, when the humidity would also be increasing, said Vaughan. As for winds, “They’ll be less than 10 mph,” he said.
On Sunday, in dismal, rainy Citizens Bank Park, winds were gusting to 29 mph.
As for what could go wrong with the Atlanta forecast, Vaughan said, “The forecast confidence is pretty high.”
An aside: If the best-of-three series goes to a third game, the Phillies’ Aaron Nola is on record as saying he loves to pitch in the heat. However, he also has given up a lot of long balls this season, and meteorologist Paul Dorian, who maintains a “Home Run Index” based on weather variables, said conditions would be favorable for homers this week.
No rain would be expected in Atlanta until Friday night, at which time the Phillies would be on the West Coast for their next series or heading back home for the winter.
If they return to Philly by Friday, they may rediscover that Ernest Hemingway was on to something with The Sun Also Rises, with clear skies and highs in the Atlanta-like 80s.
In fact after Tuesday, the sun should reign over Philly through the week, said Alex Staarmann, meteorologist at the weather service in Mount Holly. Highs are expected to be in the 70s Tuesday and Wednesday, and low 80s on Thursday.
You may have noticed a Vitamin D shortage this month. Overall, skies have been more than 70% cloud-covered since Sept. 1, according to weather service sky data, in what normally is one of the sunnier months.
“It’s been an unusually cloudy month for September, Staarmann said.
The clouds are due back this weekend. Rain is possible Friday night into Saturday, he said, and maybe more on Sunday.
If the Phillies have their way, they’ll be in Los Angeles playing in the Division Series.
With the Phillies desperate to snap a three-game losing skid and clinch the final National League wild card, Nola will start — on two days’ rest — Saturday night against the Rays in Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies discussed going with Zack Wheeler on three days’ rest, according to interim manager Don Mattingly, but settled on Nola because he typically throws 40- to 50-pitch bullpen sessions between starts, nearly twice as many as most starters.
“If anybody’s built for this, it’s probably Nola,” Mattingly said. “He is a guy who is more old-school than anybody.”
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The Phillies are down a starter because Jesús Luzardo remains on the injured list with a strained left shoulder. He’s eligible for reinstatement Sunday and will be available to pitch if the Phillies must win, Mattingly said. Wheeler is lined up to start Sunday’s season finale, but likely only if the Phillies haven’t clinched yet.
Mattingly said the Phillies briefed Nola on Thursday about the possibility of starting on short rest for the first time in his career. He skipped his scheduled bullpen session Friday and was informed after Friday night’s game that he would be starting.
It’s unclear how many pitches Nola will be able to throw against the Rays. He threw 88 and allowed four runs in six innings Wednesday night in a 4-1 loss to the Brewers, the first of three consecutive losses that kept the Phillies’ magic number frozen at two.
“Not necessarily a full start or anything like that,” said Mattingly, who cited 40 to 50 pitches as a “reasonable” goal, which could get him through the Rays’ order at least once. “He’s only had a couple of days off, so we’ll just see what it looks like and go from there.”
The Phillies’ lead over the Diamondbacks has dwindled to one game with two remaining. They can make the playoffs with any combination of wins and/or Arizona losses totaling two.
Nola, the longest-tenured Phillies player, started the 2022 wild-card clincher (in Game 160 in Houston). He has a 3.12 ERA in 89⅓ innings over his last 15 starts after posting a 6.04 ERA in 85 innings over his first 17 starts.
The cans of beer and bottles of champagne will remain unopened for now, and the protective plastic lining the ceiling of the Phillies clubhouse will have to stay rolled up for at least another day.
Because following their 4-1 loss to the Brewers on Wednesday, the Phillies were unable to clinch a playoff spot, regardless of what happened on the other side of the country with the Diamondbacks or Padres. So their celebrations will have to wait.
The Phillies’ magic number for a playoff spot remained at two after victories by the Diamondbacks and Padres later Wednesday night. They can clinch a spot in the postseason with a victory over the Brewers on Thursday and a loss by the Padres. The Diamondbacks defeated the Rockies earlier on Thursday.
“We know what we have to do. We have to go out there and keep playing,” said Kyle Schwarber. “Obviously we want to lock this thing down as soon as we can. But just wasn’t our night tonight, and got to move forward.”
They trailed the entire game. Starter Aaron Nola allowed four runs, though they came on just four hits.
Brice Turang and Christian Yelich hit solo homers. The Brewers added two more runs in the third inning, as a leadoff walk to nine-hole hitter David Hamilton came back to haunt Nola. Turang doubled, before a single from William Contreras got past a diving Bryson Stott to score two more.
“The Turang one, just left over the plate a little bit too much, and then the Yelich one didn’t really bite like I wanted it to, that cutter,” Nola said. “And Contreras capped the ball in the right spot, right there. Tough team, they battled me hard. They always do. Tough one tonight.”
Aaron Nola allowed four runs on four hits.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
That was all the damage Nola allowed, as he retired the final 10 Milwaukee hitters he faced and struck out eight over six innings. But it proved too much to overcome for the offense, despite the best efforts from Stott, who reached base three times with two doubles and a walk.
With Wednesday marking his final start of the regular season, Nola finished with a 3.03 ERA in the second half. The veteran right-hander’s resurgence — his first-half ERA was 5.75 — has been key for the Phillies.
“I know what I’m capable of, to make better pitches than I was in the first half,” Nola said. “Felt like I was giving up a lot of home runs, and I gave up a lot of home runs this year anyway, but felt like more solos in the second half, rather than the first.”
NL wild-card standings
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It would be hard to imagine the Nola from before the All-Star break making a postseason appearance, let alone starting a game. But his comeback has changed the calculus. Although the Phillies have not yet determined their rotation for a potential wild-card series, it’s possible Nola could take the ball for one of the three games.
Nola said the Phillies have not yet discussed their postseason plan with him, adding that it doesn’t matter. He intends to go about his routine as normal and ensure his body is ready for whatever he’s asked to do.
“Aaron’s been huge for us,” interim manager Don Mattingly said. “A lot of talk early, coming off last year into this year, and [he] struggled early. But what he’s been able to do for us, it’s turned that spot in the rotation to [where] you feel like he’s going to give you a good game every time out.”
Trea Turner and the Phillies finished 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The offense missed plenty of opportunities to pick Nola up. Collectively, the Phillies finished 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position. The Brewers, on the other hand, were 1-for-1.
“I think the biggest thing is, we gave ourselves some chances,” Mattingly said. “Just really weren’t able to to cash in on enough opportunities.”
The Phillies scratched across their only run in the second inning on a groundout from J.T. Realmuto that scored Alec Bohm from third. Though Realmuto picked up the RBI, the catcher’s slump stretched on, reaching a career-high 0-for-26 by the end of the night.
Twice, Bryce Harper and Luis Arraez each came up representing the tying run, and twice, they had nothing to show for it. In the fifth, Harper and Arraez flied out to strand Justin Crawford on third and Kyle Schwarber on first. In the seventh, Harper and Arraez grounded out to strand Schwarber and Trea Turner.
Both times, Harper swung at the first pitch. It’s become a trend of late for the right fielder, who has a 53.1% first-pitch swing rate in September, up from 42.5% in August.
“I really don’t worry about anything with Bryce,” Mattingly said before the game. “Honestly, he’s one of those guys that he’s going to be aggressive. We want him to be aggressive. … So yeah, we trust Bryce to do his thing.”
Out of the bullpen, Tanner Banks pitched two scoreless innings while Max Lazar delivered a scoreless ninth to give the offense one more chance. But Derek Hill, Turner, and Schwarber went down in order.
Phillies Bryson Stott celebrates after hitting a double in the fourth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhillies Brandon Marsh after striking out in the fourth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhillies pitcher Tanner Banks gets high fives in the dugout after pitching in the eighth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhils Bryson Stott tries to throw out Brewers # 11 Jackson Chourio in the eighth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026. Chourio was quick and beat the throw to first base.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhils Trea Turner strikes out to end the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026. The Phillies were defeated by the Brewers 4-1.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerAfter Trea Turner struck out to end the game he went directly to the tablets in the dugout, presumably to review his at bat in the ninrth inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026. The. Phils lost to the Brewers 4-1.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhils pitcher Aaron Nola looks down as Brewers # 22 Christian Yelich rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the second inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff PhotographerPhillies pitcher Aaron Nola watches the homerun ball hit by Brewers # 2 Brice Turang in the first inning of the Milwaukee Brewers vs. Philadelphia Phillies MLB baseball game at Citzens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Wednesday, September 23, 2026.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The Phillies will get another opportunity to shrink the magic number further — and perhaps even unfurl the plastic — in Thursday’s series finale against the Brewers, with right-hander Andrew Painter on the mound.
“Obviously we’re all frustrated, and we wanted to go out there and we wanted to get this done tonight, lock this thing up,” Schwarber said. “But we got to move on. We got a game tomorrow, and there’s an opportunity for us tomorrow.”
NEW YORK — Aaron Nola once stood on the mound here and struck out 10 consecutive batters, tying a major-league record set by a Hall of Famer with a 10-foot tall statue outside the main gate of this ballpark.
Just in case anyone forgot who Nola is.
It was a long time ago — June 25, 2021, to be exact — when Nola shared a feat with Tom Seaver. Nola is 33 now, with as much mileage on his iron right arm as any pitcher in the sport. And until this week, he wasn’t as essential to the entire Phillies’ operation.
But with nine games to go, a playoff spot within reach, and star lefty Jesús Luzardo shut down by an inflamed shoulder, the spotlight is back on the Phillies’ longest-tenured player.
What a time, then, for Nola to turn back the clock.
That’s clearly what’s happening, the latest gem coming Thursday night when Nola faced the minimum 15 batters through five innings, didn’t yield a hit until the sixth, and threw 81 pitches over seven innings — a model of efficiency and effectiveness — in a 3-0 victory over the Mets.
You could’ve sworn it was 2022 all over again.
“It feels good,” Nola said, understated as ever.
But here’s the thing: It wasn’t a one-off. Quietly, as is his nature, Nola has pitched like this for six weeks, beginning with a hard-luck 1-0 loss July 28 in Miami. In his last 10 starts, he has a 2.10 ERA in 60 innings.
Video: Aaron Nola on the Phillies’ World Series chances: ‘We definitely have the team to do it’
These are the Phillies, though, so it couldn’t be all good. Jonathan Bowlan, who has emerged as the primary setup reliever, took over from Nola and left in the eighth inning with what the Phillies termed “tightness” in his right groin.
“No pop, nothing like that,” said Bowlan, who missed two weeks in April with a strained right groin. “All I can do is treatment, and re-evaluate and go from there. We’ll just have to see what tomorrow brings.”
The bullpen is already missing Brad Keller, sidelined in July by season-ending elbow surgery. Orion Kerkering has been slowed by turf toe. Rookie Alex McFarlane is already playing a big role. Without Bowlan, lefty Tim Mayza and others would have to take up the mantle.
“We’ll find out more tomorrow,” interim manager Don Mattingly said after the Phillies pulled into a tie with the idle Cubs for the top National League wild card and lowered their playoff-clinching magic number to five. “I don’t want to be coldhearted, but you’d have to move on and find a way to fill that spot, which is not necessarily easy to do. But that means other guys got to step up. That’s all.”
Nola is nothing less than one of the best homegrown pitchers in franchise history. On the Phillies’ all-time lists, he ranks second in strikeouts (2,045), fifth in wins (116), and seventh in innings (1,884).
Someday, he’ll get a plaque on the Wall of Fame in Ashburn Alley.
But through June, Nola had a 6.04 ERA — after an injury-plagued 2025 in which he finished with a career-worst 6.01 mark. Never one to overpower hitters with velocity, his command must be precise. And nothing has gotten easier for him, not with the advent of the pitch clock, the automated ball-strike system, a limit on the number of pickoff moves, and just the passage of time.
It was fair to wonder if Nola, signed through 2030 at $24.57 million per year, was cooked.
Aaron Nola has a 2.10 ERA in his last 10 starts.Seth Wenig
“Not for me,” Mattingly said. “Honestly, guys that locate like that and work and are healthy, you know what they’ve been in the past. And guys just don’t quit trying to get better and reinventing themselves, in a sense. As you get older, you have to do it.”
Indeed, after a decade of spinning his curveball, burying his sinker, and pounding the strike zone, Nola changed his pattern. In particular, he threw more changeups, even to right-handed hitters.
“I think it’s just mixing well and throwing all the pitches for strikes and just trying to keep everything sharp and the delivery sharp,” Nola said. “Try not to be too perfect with my pitches.”
Against the Mets, Nola relied on his signature curveball. He threw 47 pitches through five innings and sat through a long delay in the top of the sixth when Mets first baseman Jared Young got carted off the field on a stretcher in a scary scene after colliding with pitcher Nolan McLean and taking a knee to the head.
(Young had feeling in his extremities, according to the Mets, but was taken to the hospital, where a CT scan was negative.)
Nola allowed a one-out walk in the sixth on a 10-pitch duel with Brett Baty before finally giving up a hit, a solid single to left field by Nick Morabito. He got through the seventh and might have come back for the eighth, too.
“But just checking with him, he seemed hesitant to me,” Mattingly said. “He felt like he didn’t have the same fastball. He was kind of running out of gas.”
NL wild-card standings
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And given the uncertainty with Luzardo, Mattingly isn’t about to take chances with Nola — or any other starter.
“We really hope [Luzardo] can come back healthy — and quick,” Nola said. “We really need him.”
Meanwhile, there’s Nola, with his 3.88 ERA in 11 career postseason starts, tied for 14th-most among active pitchers.
“Noles is huge,” Mattingly said. “It was tough there early for him, but he just hung in there, kept working, and next thing you know, you’re seeing this. And with Zeus, not knowing what’s going on as this thing gets down to the wire, how Noles factors in could be huge.”
The Phillies kick off a four-game series with the New York Mets Thursday, but fans will need to do a bit of channel surfing to catch all the games.
Thursday night’s game will air on Fox beginning at 7:15 p.m., with Kenny Albert and Tom Verducci calling all the action. Ken Rosenthal will report from Citi Field.
Aaron Nola (6-10, 4.69 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound for the Phillies. Nola hasn’t allowed more than three runs in a start since way back on July 22, when he gave up five to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He’ll face Mets rookie Nolan McLean (11-9, 3.24 ERA), who gave up just two hits and struck out 10 in a win against the Phillies on July 19.
On Friday, the Phillies jump off TV and onto streaming for their final appearance on Apple TV’s Friday Night Baseball this season. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m., with Alex Faust and Ryan Spilborghs on the call and Tricia Whitaker reporting from the stadium.
Apple TV also has its own pregame show hosted by Sierra Santos alongside former outfielder Chris Young and MLB insider Russell Dorsey.
It’s the fifth season of Apple TV’s seven-year, $595 million deal with MLB, which runs through the 2028 season. Over that time, the cost has nearly doubled from $6.99 to $12.99 a month.
While Apple TV’s exclusive games remain an annoyance for baseball fans without the streaming service, they do come with one important perk — the ability to switch the audio feed over to 94.1 WIP and Scott Franzke and Kevin Stocker calls.
The quality of Apple TV’s broadcast is also generally very good, with crystal-clear footage and minimalist graphics (though the constant probabilities and live gambling updates become a bit annoying).
Scott Franzke (left) and Ruben Amaro, Jr. will call the final two games of the Phillies-Mets series on NBC Sports Philadelphia. NBC Sports Philadelphia
The final two games of the Phillies-Mets series will be back on NBC Sports Philadelphia Saturday or Sunday. With Tom McCarthy calling Sunday’s NFL matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers on CBS, it’ll be Franzke calling the games alongside former Phillies general manager turned announcer Rubén Amaro Jr.
John Kruk will be back Tuesday along with McCarthy to call the Phillies’ series against the Milwaukee Brewers, the second-to-last of the season. And World Series MVP-turned-broadcaster Cole Hamels will be back in the booth for the final Phillies game of the season on Sept. 27 against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Phillies playoff picture
NL East standings
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There was a moment where it seemed like the Phillies might overtake the Braves in the standings. But after dropping two of three against Atlanta last weekend, the Phillies’ chances of winning the National League East appear distant as best.
The Phillies enter Thursday’s series opener against the Mets 4½ games behind the Braves with 10 remaining. Atlanta faces the AL West-leading Houston Astros this weekend, but finish the season against the lowly Cincinnati Reds and Miami Marlins. An epic collapse along the lines of the 1964 Phillies — who blew a 6½ game lead with 12 remaining — doesn’t seem likely.
NL wild-card standings
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If the season ended Tuesday, the Phillies would end up in the second wild-card spot, meaning they’d travel to Chicago for a three-game series against the Cubs.
The good news is the Phillies are just a half-game down from the top wild-card spot entering Thursday. Overtaking the Cubs would move that three-game series to Citizens Bank Park.
The bad news is the Cubs, who are off Thursday, own the tiebreaker against the Phillies. Chicago kicks off a three-game series against the Reds Friday before finishing the season with series against the Marlins and Boston Red Sox.
The MLB playoffs begin Sept. 29 and will air on NBC.
Phillies magic number
That is the combined total of Phillies’ wins and/or losses by the teams on the outside looking in that are needed to secure at least the third wild-card berth and a spot in the playoffs.
PHOENIX — As the Diamondbacks’ next hitter stepped into the batter’s box, catcher Garrett Stubbs studied Alex McFarlane.
Looking across the mound, he could see no hint of fear or nerves in the rookie reliever. Even in a one-run game in the sixth inning, even with two inherited runners looming behind him, even with eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado setting up at the plate.
“In that moment, you look out at him,” Stubbs said, “and he didn’t show anything but wanting to attack the zone.”
And Stubbs was game. They started Arenado off with a fastball, a 99.4 mph offering he watched at the bottom of the zone, but the Diamondbacks third baseman battled back to a 3-1 hitter’s count.
Still, McFarlane didn’t waver. He evened things up with a perfectly placed fastball on the outside edge before Stubbs made a gutsy call on a 3-2 sweeper. McFarlane missed his spot — it was intended to be low and away, and the righty left it up — but it was not a pitch that Arenado was anticipating. He froze, watching it land in Stubbs’ glove for strike three.
The Phillies’ 2-1 win over the Diamondbacks on Monday night was ensured by several nervy performances from their relievers. But perhaps none more than the one in the sixth inning from the 25-year-old, who a month ago was pitching in double A.
“Just doing what this bullpen has helped me out with the whole season,” McFarlane said. “Just breathing and slowing down and understanding, just trusting your stuff in the zone.”
Of Aaron Nola’s 104 total pitches, more than half were out of the strike zone. Ross D. Franklin
McFarlane entered the game with two runners on after interim manager Don Mattingly’s decision to send Aaron Nola back out for the sixth backfired. The Phillies starter held Arizona to one run, working around a fastball that didn’t have as much life as normal, but his pitch count was already at 92 after five.
The long at-bats caught up to him, and Nola departed the sixth inning without recording an out.
“I notice that when I don’t have that much life on the fastball, they foul more pitches off and run the pitch count up, and work better [at-bats],” Nola said.
McFarlane induced a flyout from Lars Nootbar, and after striking out Arenado, got a groundout from Tim Tawa. Looking on from the dugout, Nola raised his fist in triumph.
“That’s pretty special right there,” Nola said. “Pretty awesome. Left him in a tough spot to come in.”
The Phillies bullpen, which was without setup man Jonathan Bowlan for workload reasons, covered four scoreless innings to cinch the win.
Bryson Stott gave the Phillies an early lead with the longest home run of his career. Brandon Pfaadt left a fastball over the middle of the plate and Stott sent it 464 feet, a towering shot that landed a few rows in front of the concourse in right field.
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“I wasn’t sure if it was going to go out or not,” joked Mattingly. “No, that was a long one.”
The Phillies scored another run in the third inning as Bryce Harper extended his career-high on-base streak to 33 games with an RBI double. He drove in Stubbs from second base and advanced Kyle Schwarber to third.
But they missed a few opportunities to add on more. Schwarber was tagged out at the plate in the third and the Phillies stranded the bases loaded in the eighth. So a one-run lead was all the bullpen would get.
But it proved to be all they needed. Brooks Raley bailed out Orion Kerkering by stranding an inherited runner to end the seventh with a strikeout. José Alvarado left two runners with a big strikeout to end the eighth. Tawa chased four pitches out of the strike zone to go down swinging.
Jhoan Duran picked up his 29th save.Ross D. Franklin
Against closer Jhoan Duran, the Diamondbacks advanced the tying run 90 feet away after a pair of infield singles to shortstop, followed by a wild pitch. But the third time proved to be the charm, and Trea Turner fielded the next grounder for the third out to seal the Phillies’ fifth consecutive win.
“I think we got a lot of different mix out there. … I think we think we feel OK with the way the bullpen’s going. This is who we are at this point,” Mattingly said.
The rest of the bullpen has taken McFarlane, who has the least major league service time on the team, under its collective wing. McFarlane’s locker in the visitors’ clubhouse in Phoenix is in the corner, neighboring Duran’s. The two hard-throwing righties were chatting as the clubhouse was emptying out late Monday night.
Arenado has become the latest future Hall of Famer added to McFarlane’s mantle of outs. The first hitter he retired in the majors — just over a month ago — was Shohei Ohtani. A few days ago, he struck out Mike Trout on a 101 mph fastball.
“That’s kind of been my story, the whole season, is facing those big guys,” McFarlane said. “And just seeing him in the box is a great thing.”
What stands out the most to those around him is McFarlane’s composure. On July 18, he threw his last pitch in double A. Now he’s here.
“I’ll tell you what,” Stubbs said. “For a kid who debuted a month ago or whatever it was, the demeanor that he’s got on the mound in a situation like that is pretty incredible.”
“He seems to not be bothered, honestly, by it,” said Mattingly. “He kind of comes in right away and just says, ‘Hey, Skip, how you doing?’ He’s been good, and he’s a worker, too.”
As Nola put it: “Doesn’t really pitch like a rookie.”
SEATTLE — The second-best option in the bullpen hadn’t pitched in six days. Nothing to see there, the Phillies insisted. The game situations simply didn’t call for Jonathan Bowlan.
“But tonight,” interim manager Don Mattingly said before Tuesday’s game, “is probably almost a must-pitch.”
So, here were the Phillies, trailing by one run against the Mariners as the seventh inning began. And there was Bowlan, still sitting in the bullpen as Orion Kerkering came on in relief of starter Aaron Nola.
Bowlan pitched, true to Mattingly’s word. But by the time he entered in the eighth, the deficit had swelled to three runs in a 4-1 loss, the Phillies’ second setback in a row here in Seattle after nine consecutive victories.
The record will reflect that Nola yielded the go-ahead run in the sixth inning on back-to-back singles to Julio Rodríguez and Josh Naylor. But Nola allowed only three hits overall to continue a resurgence in the midst of ace Zack Wheeler’s worst six-start stretch in nearly 10 years.
So, let’s not pin this one on Nola. Not after the Phillies went 15 consecutive at-bats without a hit between the third and eighth innings against Mariners starter George Kirby.
And certainly not after Mattingly put a 2-1 seventh-inning deficit in the hands of someone other than his well-rested setup man.
Why Kerkering over Bowlan in the seventh?
“He’s kind of been our seventh-inning guy, eighth depending on where it goes,” Mattingly said of Kerkering. “It felt like he was the right guy.”
Aaron Nola has a 3.57 ERA in his last 10 starts.Lindsey Wasson
To be fair, Kerkering seemed to have gotten a second wind lately after struggling to throw strikes in late July. But he hit Taylor Ward with one out in the seventh, then allowed a single to J.P. Crawford and walked Brock Rodden to load the bases before Randy Arozarena fouled out.
With two out, Mattingly played the matchups, turning to lefty Brooks Raley to face lefty-hitting Dominic Canzone. Raley’s 1-1 pitch was a low-and-away sweeper. But Canzone covered the outer edge of the plate and lined it to center field for a two-run single.
Bowlan, meanwhile, pitched around a one-out walk in a scoreless eighth with an assist to Bryce Harper, who made a diving catch in right field to end the inning.
Kirby muted an offense that had been fully operational throughout the nine-game winning streak. With a blazing fastball and a four-pitch offspeed mixture, he gave up a run on Justin Crawford’s RBI single in the second inning, then slammed the door.
“He’s good, man,” Trea Turner said. “He’s got four or five really good pitches and then just the command is really good. He doesn’t give you much to hit in the middle of the zone. The fastball was hard today. I think I saw a bunch of 99s up there, so he’s tough.
“I felt like we did a good job early battling to get some runners on there, but it’s hard to put a big inning against him as a team.”
Justin Crawford’s RBI single in the second inning was the Phillies’ lone run.Lindsey Wasson
Before the game, most of the attention of the Phillies’ pitching brain trust was focused on trying to solve the riddle of Wheeler’s 8.51 ERA in his last six starts. It’s his worst six-start stretch since he posted a 9.89 ERA midway through the 2017 season when he was still with the Mets.
Absent a solution, not much else matters.
But imagine the state of the Phillies’ rotation in these waning days of summer if not for Nola.
And imagine saying that even a month ago.
“He’s been on a good roll,” Mattingly said. “He was really good tonight.”
Nola gave up a game-tying solo homer to suddenly scorching Cal Raleigh in the second inning. He retired 13 of the next 15 batters, allowing only two walks before the back-to-back hits by Rodríguez and Naylor in the sixth.
It marked another quality start for Nola, who has a 3.57 ERA in his last 10 starts. Since July 5, he has lowered his season ERA from 6.04 to 5.03.
“I just kept trying to work, keep working, having good weeks, and keep competing out there,” Nola said. “I feel a little more on the attack, and my misses are a little bit smaller.”
Since July 5, Aaron Nola has dropped his ERA from 5.87 to 5.03.Lindsey Wasson
But after flying across the country on the wings of an improbable ninth-inning comeback at home Sunday, back-to-back losses in the Pacific Northwest have felt like a bucket of ice water.
It has also stretched the deficit in the NL East back to 4½ games and narrowed the Phillies’ wild-card lead to three games over the Diamondbacks.
“It’s tough,” Turner said. “But I think we ran into two really good starting pitchers the last couple of days and just didn’t get the job done. I don’t feel like we’re beating ourselves or doing some stupid stuff. I just feel like we just got beaten. You move on.”
The Phillies are the hottest team in baseball, hotter than they’ve been all year, winners of nine straight for the first time since May of last season and just the second time in the Schwarber Era, which began in 2022.
We’ll call it the Schwarber Era because it was Kyle Schwarber’s 459-foot, two-run, walk-off Schwar-bomb that extended the winning streak Sunday afternoon, and because, with due respect to Bryce Harper and Zack Wheeler, Schwarber is the soul of this ballclub.
Everybody always loves Schwarber. Not everybody loves these Phillies.
Maybe you don’t. Who can blame you? Whether it’s collapses against the Diamondbacks or Mets, or an inexplicable bunt or an unforgivable error against the Dodgers, these Phillies have a way of breaking your heart.
Once bitten, twice bitten, thrice bitten … goodbye?
Paul told the Galatians, “Be ye not faint of heart,” but the greatest apostle would be ashamed of Phillies fans today. Why?
Because these Phillies are for real.
They’re beating good teams by playing mature, sound baseball, and they’re doing it generally without the best efforts of their best players.
Nevertheless, they’re 16-5 in their last 21 games and a season-high 15 games over .500 going into Monday’s series opener in Seattle. They were 9½ games behind the Braves in the NL East when the streak began, but now they’re just three games out with 31 games to go, seven of them head-to-head with Atlanta. The Phils held the No. 2 wild-card slot, two games behind the Cubs, two ahead of the Padres, and four games ahead of the Diamondbacks, the first team out.
The Phillies on Monday began a nine-game, 10-day road trip three time zones west. They face the Mariners, then the Angels, two relatively poor American League teams, by the time they get to Arizona.
They swept Miami, St. Louis, and Minnesota, all teams with valid playoff aspirations, at least until they played the Phillies. That’s the biggest reason why you should learn to love again.
Here are four more.
The Phillies are winning despite middling performances of late from their aces, including Cristopher Sánchez.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
2: They’re streaking without good starts from the Big 3
During the streak, top three starters Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, and Jesús Luzardo all left the game while trailing after an ungainly outing. They surrendered a combined 10 earned runs in 17⅔ innings. The Phillies won anyway.
All three are healthy. They just faced decent offensive teams in the dregs of summer. The Mariners have scored the fewest runs in baseball. The Angels have the second-worst OPS. The next seven days should be a feast for the Big Three.
Luis Arraez is an unconventional but productive cleanup hitter for the Phillies.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
3: The Arraez Affect
Since three-time batting champ Luis Arraez, a deadline addition, joined the lineup Aug. 4, the Phillies have mimicked his approach. Their swings are more controlled. The hitters are more on balance.
The result: fewer home runs, but more hits.
They’ve hit nine homers in the nine wins, a rate of 1.0 per game. They’d hit 148 home runs in their first 123 games, a rate of 1.2 homers per game. Sometimes, less is more.
Since Arraez’s arrival and his insertion in the No. 4 spot, No. 3 hitter Bryce Harper has a .506 on-base percentage with 25 walks. No. 5 hitter Alec Bohm saved his season: He’s hitting .393 with a 1.015 OPS and 15 RBIs in 17 games. Bryson Stott, who bats sixth, is hitting .295 with 15 walks.
Bryson Stott has been great at third base since his move there following the Arraez trade.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
4: The defense got better
The Phillies chose to play Arraez at second base. This meant Stott had to move from second to third base, Bohm had to move from third to first base, and Harper had to move from first back to right field.
The unintended consequence: This is the best Phillies infield since 2011, when Placido Polanco won a Gold Glove at third base and Jimmy Rollins should have won it at shortstop. Granted, this is a low bar — Phillies infields have been atrocious for 15 years — but Stott, a shortstop by birth, already was an elite second baseman, and his play at third has been otherworldly. Bohm is an unnatural third baseman but a natural first baseman, unlike Harper, who is a very good outfielder. Arraez is a fine second baseman, and even Trea Turner looks better at shortstop.
Aaron Nola has been solid of late after a very slow start to his season.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
5: Andrew Painter and Aaron Nola settled in
Andrew Painter, who is 23, spent all of 2025 in triple A coming back from elbow surgery that cost him all of 2023 and 2024. His big-league debut was March 31. He was inconsistent, and was sent back to triple A in mid-June.
We call this “normal.”
Aaron Nola, who is 33, threw more innings than anyone else from 2018-24. In 2025 he suffered his first significant injury since 2016, which cost him three months in the middle of the season. He struggled the first three months of this season.
Nola’s ERA in his last nine starts is 3.63. He’s had one bad start. He’s learned to lean on his knuckle-curve.
You know what happens when you get 3.6-ish ERAs from fourth and fifth starters? You win divisions, you win pennants, and you win back the hearts of your fans.
Love Hurts
I get it. It’s hard to love a team with a $300 million shortstop hitting .245; a team that had to release $20 million outfielder Nick Castellanos and $18 million starter Taijuan Walker; a team with a bullpen that is injured and ineffective and, with the exception of the closer, utterly maddening.
But in matters of the heart, there are no guarantees. You take a chance, you ride the thrill, and, as fate decides, your devotion is rewarded … or not.
“ ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Lord Tennyson was English, and he died in 1892. His grandson, Lionel, became England’s cricket captain, and Tennyson simply wallowed in heartbreak: It took him 17 years to finish the elegy.
In a different time the poet properly known as Alfred, Lord Tennyson — a moderate conservative rashly bearded — surely would have been a baseball fan.
Given his predilection for misery, he probably would have followed the Phillies.
Ahead of Wednesday’s series finale against the Marlins, interim manager Don Mattingly said he would be happy with five innings from starter Aaron Nola.
“That’s really what you’re asking from really any of our guys,” he said. “Keep us in the game, through the middle of the game.”
After a rocky start to the season, Nola has been reliably doing just that. But he surpassed those expectations Wednesday, delivering seven innings of one-run ball in the 4-1 win over Miami.
It was just the second time Nola has finished seven innings this season. He kept the Marlins off balance with his knuckle curve on the way to the Phillies’ series sweep and sixth straight win. He recorded seven of his eight strikeouts and 12 total whiffs on the pitch. Nola did not walk a batter.
“He’s been good here a long time,” Mattingly said afterward, “and he’s actually been pretty good this year, for a long time now. So it was good.”
Nola surrendered a solo homer to Javier Sanoja in the sixth — marking his eighth straight start allowing a home run — but that was one of just five hits he allowed. Homers have continued to be an issue for Nola, who is averaging a career-high 2.04 home runs per nine innings, but that can be manageable when he limits them to solo shots.
Nola kept his composure, even as the Marlins threatened with back-to-back singles. After a mound visit from pitching coach Caleb Cotham, he rebounded to strike out Griffin Conine and Heriberto Hernández on curveballs.
“Breaking ball was really good tonight, but still the mix is good with him,” Mattingly said. “He’s always mixing, and not really ever giving in to the middle of the plate.”
Although Nola had escaped a jam in the sixth inning, Mattingly was confident enough in how he had been throwing the ball to send him back out for the seventh. Nola pitched a 1-2-3 inning, capping it with his eighth strikeout on his 100th pitch of the night.
He exited to a standing ovation.
“It was good. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the seventh,” Nola said.
In four starts in the month of August, Nola has a 2.74 ERA. His ERA across the first four months of the season was 5.61. He can’t pinpoint one single adjustment that has spurred his turnaround, but Nola said that all his pitches have felt sharper recently.
“Lately I’ve been feeling pretty good. Body and arm, arsenal’s been feeling pretty good, and I just want to keep it up and keep having good work weeks,” he said.
The Phillies didn’t homer in their first two wins against the Marlins this series, but on Wednesday, they finally found the seats. And it was from the unlikeliest suspect.
Luis Arraez hit a two-run shot off his former Miami teammate Sandy Alcantara in the third inning, just his sixth homer of the season and second in a Phillies uniform since the Aug. 3 trade.
“I just tried to find a barrel, and thank God I hit it out,” Arraez said. “And I mean, I think that ball in San Francisco is a double, but here it’s a homer.”
According to StatCast data, Arraez was right. The long line drive would not have cleared the wall in 11 other major league ballparks, including his former haunt of Oracle Park.
Luis Arraez hit his second home run with the Phillies in the third inning.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
But since it happened at Citizens Bank Park, Arraez drove in Bryce Harper, who extended his on-base streak to 23 games and his walk streak to 10 games by working a seven-pitch walk from Alcantara.
Also an unusual sight was Kyle Schwarber scoring from first on a double from Trea Turner in the seventh. The relay from the outfield beat Schwarber to the plate, but he managed to swim around the tag for an insurance run. He was initially called out, but it was overturned after replay review.
“Schwarber hit him with the hesi. That was pretty cool,” said Brandon Marsh. “Big insurance run that we needed. Big hit out of Trea, and yeah, that was that was a big run for us.”
Marsh had some highlight-reel plays of his own in left field. He made a sliding grab on a line drive in the seventh inning to help out Nola, and then climbed the wall in the corner to snag a foul ball over the outstretched gloves and hats of the fans in that section in the eighth.
“I got to thank the guy standing over there for kind of pulling away at the last second because I think he had first dibs on it before me, I feel like,” Marsh said. “So he moved over a little bit and helped me have the room to catch it.”
The Phillies scored a run in the second inning on three consecutive two-out singles. With the bases loaded, catcher Garrett Stubbs sent a soft grounder to shortstop and managed to beat out Otto Lopez’s throw to first for an infield hit. Stubbs had another single in the seventh.
Nola passed the baton to Jonathan Bowlan and Jhoan Duran for a scoreless eighth and ninth inning, respectively. Duran recorded his 28th save of the season.
After being swept out of South Florida by the Marlins last month, the Phillies have now returned the favor.
“It was big for us,” Marsh said. “Just not been the second half that we’ve really wanted, but we’re still in it, and love where we’re at. It’s a good team over there. They pitched well, so it was really big for us to take three, especially here at home.”
