Phillies fans hadn’t seen a sweep of the Dodgers in Citizens Bank Park in a long time. On the shoulders of Aaron Nola, plus some timely defense, that changed Thursday night. Philadelphia completed the three-game sweep of Los Angeles with a 5-1 victory in front of yet another sold-out crowd in South Philly.
Phillies hitters combined power and small ball to plate their runs. Outside of a homer off the foul pole – their pitching staff, plus some timely defense, laid LA to rest. Let’s see how we got there.
Aaron Nola’s Night
Aaron Nola, despite tenure and contract, was suddenly looking like the fourth-best pitcher in the Phillies rotation. The way they’ve pitched this season, that’s far from an insult. Looking on the surface, he is slightly behind his rotation mates in ERA with an impressive 3.23. But digging a little deeper, he leads the team in innings pitched and is second on the team in WHIP.
Nola surrendered just the one run – a solo shot off the bat of the No. 9 hitter Gavin Lux that clipped the netting of the left field foul pole. It would have been gone in 17 of 30 ballparks. Outside of that, he kept hitters off balance all night – especially the top of the order.
Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, and Teoscar Hernández combined to go just 1-for-11 against the Phillies starter. They recorded a single, one walk, and struck out six times facing Nola. The biggest moment of the night for the right-hander came in the second inning when Ohtani stepped in the box with the bases loaded. Nola sat him down after just four pitches.
I asked manager Rob Thomson during his post-game media availability what the reaction was in the dugout after Nola struck Ohtani out. He said, “everybody was fired up, ’cause now we knew that there’s a chance we can get out of this inning.” After one more ground ball, they did just that.
Thomson called Nola “Mister Consistency” during the post-game presser, and that’s the best way to describe him. Tonight he threw his 14th quality start – tying him for the major league lead.
Big Moments for the Phillies
Any time you can take out the team nipping at your heels for first place in the National League, you’ll need big moments along the way. Nola escaping the jam in the second frame wasn’t it for Philadelphia.
Just after they escaped that bases-loaded jam to keep their one-run lead, Brandon Marsh doubled the score on the first pitch of the bottom of the frame – driving a ball to deep right field (and interrupting my brother-in-law’s beer sale in the process). After Jeff Hoffman got in another dicey situation by filling the pond with ducks in the top of inning No. 8, it was Kyle Schwarber driving one out in the bottom of the inning – one-upping Marsh by putting his long ball in the first row of the second deck in right.
“It’s just momentum, right. Whenever you can eliminate momentum and then take it – it’s always a good thing.”
Rob Thomson post game, July 11, 2024
Johan Rojas made a great catch in the seventh, earning a tip of the cap from his pitcher and a standing ovation from the crowd at Citizens Bank Park. “I don’t know what the computers say,” Thomson said when asked about the degree of difficulty on the catch, “but it looked like a great catch to me.“
Rojas spoke very confidently when talking about his defense (through a team interpreter) with the reporters who were in the clubhouse after tonight’s game.
In the sixth inning, Philadelphia added some small ball to the mix. After a bloop single from Nick Castellanos, the bearded wonder ripped a ball down the right-field line for a triple. Rojas followed that up with a single of his own, and the Phillies tacked on two before the bullpen took over for Nola.
In Conclusion
The Phillies are back on a roll and they have a weaker opponent coming in over the weekend in the Athletics, before the All-Star break. They completed the sweep of the Dodgers, their first since August 8-10, 2011 in LA. It was their first sweep of the Dodgers at home since 2008 – a four-game sweep August 22-25.
Tomorrow night’s game will see Ranger Suárez (10-3, 2.58 ERA) face off against Hogan Harris (1-3, 3.22 ERA). The game starts at 6:40.
Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)
