The Mets have had the Phillies’ number for nearly a year.
Since last October’s NLDS, Philadelphia had beaten New York just three times heading into Monday’s series opener at Citizens Bank Park.
With Trea Turner and Alec Bohm sidelined and the lineup in flux, the Phils leaned on their veterans in a pitchers’ duel to notch a 1-0 victory over the Metropolitans.
Aaron Nola delivered his biggest start of 2025 — in what has otherwise been a disappointing season for the longest-tenured Phillie.
Nola’s gutsy outing featured six scoreless innings, seven strikeouts and a roaring ovation from over 40,000. It was his first scoreless start since May 3, before an ankle sprain sent him to the IL until mid-August.
“He just threw so well tonight,” manager Rob Thomson said. “He kept the ball down. He was attacking the zone a lot more. A lot of changeups, a lot more changeups than he’s been throwing … the curveball was sharp, I thought he was really good.”
Nola credited his ability to command the fastball and changeup as key. “I just needed to win the count, stay ahead, attack the zone,” he said. “I kind of controlled the zone a lot better than that last one.”
He mixed all four of his primary pitches — four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup — each at least 20% of the time across his 94 pitches. Notably, he scrapped the cutter — except for once, when he fanned Juan Soto for a strikeout in the sixth.
“Sometimes you’ve got to think out of the box a little bit,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “I knew [Soto] hadn’t seen one yet, so he wasn’t going to be looking for it. I just trusted Aaron to execute it and he did.”
That pitch turned out to be the first out of Nola’s final inning. “It was good to get those hitters out, especially two really good ones,” Nola said of Soto and Pete Alonso. “Those guys are tough.”
Opposing him was rookie phenom Nolan McLean, who has stormed onto the scene with historic numbers.
The right-hander entered 4-0 with a 1.36 ERA and joined Fernando Valenzuela (1981) as the only pitchers since ERA became official in 1913 to win their first four starts with a sub-1.50 ERA and 25-plus strikeouts.
One of those outings came Aug. 27, when McLean blanked the Phillies across eight innings.
This time, the Phils finally cracked him in the second. Max Kepler started with an opposite-field single. Harrison Bader lined a ball into left-center — his first of three hits tonight — and though he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double, Kepler advanced to third.
Nick Castellanos then wasted no time, slapping an RBI single past Pete Alonso on the first pitch for a 1-0 lead.
Nick Castellanos knocked in a run with an RBI single in the 2nd inning against the Mets on Monday night.
Castellanos has thrived in ambush mode — entering the night hitting .424 (39-for-92) when putting the first pitch in play.
The 33-year-old has been forced to embrace a rotational role in Rob Thomson’s outfield but continues to produce whenever called upon.
From there, both offenses fell silent. McLean yielded just the one run over 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, while Nola matched him zero for zero.
Realmuto said the approach against McLean was simple: “He’s a good pitcher, so you really just try to get something in the heart of the plate, and he doesn’t throw it there too often. That’s why he’s a good pitcher. I did feel like we had good at-bats off of him.”
The Phillies’ bullpen held the line. David Robertson struck out two in a clean seventh, his 11th scoreless outing in 13 appearances since re-joining the club.
In the eighth, Matt Strahm issued a two-out walk to Francisco Lindor, bringing up Soto. The slugger entered with 38 homers, 93 RBIs and a .924 OPS in his first Mets season.
Soto worked a 2-0 count, then cracked a grounder to the right side. Bryson Stott made a diving stop and fired to first to get Soto, preserving the lead.
With the score still 1-0, the lights dimmed for the ninth, the bell rang, and Jhoan Duran came on to shut the door.
The flame thrower got into a second-and-third, nobody-out jam, but struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez to end it.
“The plan was to just try to get him [the Mets] to be a little more aggressive early in the count and not just throw the ball down the middle,” Realmuto said. “Obviously it’s not an ideal situation to be in there [with second and third] … but if anybody can do it, it’d be him.”
A much different ending than the last time he faced New York, but a much needed win against their division rival.
The Phillies move to 84-60 and extend their league in the NL East to eight games over the Mets. For anyone who’s counting, the magic number to clinch a playoff berth is seven games and the division is 11.
Lots can change with three more games ahead with the Mets this series. Buckle up.
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