As I searched for pictures of Aaron Nola to use for this recap, I found a picture of a rhinoceros instead. It turns out that there’s a zoo in France that has a rhino named Nola; I choose to believe that this is not coincidental, and that somewhere out there is a Francophone cheering group for Nola: “Courbe de l’articulation! Courbe de l’articulation!”, they cry as he unleashes the knuckle curve on hapless opponents. At any rate, Nola was as tough as a rhino’s horn tonight.
After a quiet first, the Phillies got rolling in the second. Luis Arraez singled to lead off the inning, and after the next two Phillies made outs, Brandon Marsh and Justin Crawford singled to load the bases. That brought up Garrett Stubbs, who grounded to short. He sprinted to first with the copious amount of enthusiasm he brings to every endeavor; the result was the umpire flinging his arms wide in that signal beloved by baserunners everywhere, and the Phillies leading 1-0. The next Phillies runs would come in more bombastic fashion: Arraez sent a ball flying into the right field seats for a two-run homer in the bottom of the third.
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Meanwhile, Aaron Nola kept mowing down Marlins. Through five innings the Fish had two hits, and five of them had struck out at Nola’s hand, four on the knuckle curve. It couldn’t last forever: in the top of the sixth Javier Sanoja slapped a sinker over the left field wall; a textbook line-drive homer. But the solo shots won’t kill you, and this one was a survivable blow. What happened afterward was a little more worrying, as Nola allowed singles to the next two batters. Sequencing is a quiet but mighty force in baseball, and here it was the difference between a manageable solo shot and a tied game. Nola steadied himself, broke out the knuckle curve, and gave the next two Marlins bright red Ks to wear, Hester Prynnes for the national pastime. Nola pitched through the seventh, finishing, fittingly, by making a Fish flail at a knuckle curve.
In the bottom of the seventh, Kyle Schwarber singled and Trea Turner doubled. Schwarber headed home, but center fielder Jakob Marsee flung the ball homeward like an angler throwing a lure into the water; after a relay from the shortstop, Schwarber was called out at home. The Phillies challenged, and the replay showed that Miami backstop Joe Mack may have whiffed on his tag attempt. After a lengthy review, the umpires ruled that Schwarber had indeed made it home safely. Don Mattingly smiled serenely in the dugout as Citizens Bank Park erupted in cheers.
Jonathan Bowlan took over after Nola. He does have a curveball, but deploys it quite sparingly (just eight times this season); perhaps that’s for the best, as just about any curve would struggle to fill the shoes (tunnel?) of Nola’s tonight. He navigated through the seventh without allowing the Marlins to narrow the lead, thanks in part to an excellent catch by Marsh in foul territory.
With the Phillies up by a couple, the sequence that would follow was obvious to all: Jhoan Duran would emerge from the dugout with the traditional fanfare, he would bedevil the Marlins with his blazing heater, and would allow no more than perhaps a stray hit or two as he slammed the door. And that is exactly what happened. I take great pride, valued TGP reader, in writing each and every one of these recaps from scratch, but in truth I could copy-paste the Duran sections and nobody would notice. He is as predictable as a Christmas Story coming on TV every holiday season.
The Phillies are 70-58. They’ll return to action at 6:40 on Friday, as a series against the Cardinals begins.
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