Phillies overcome shaky start from Aaron Nola, beat the Marlins 8-4

After a frustrating loss on Friday night, the Phillies bounced back at Citizens Bank Park last night, beating the Miami Marlins 8-4.

Aaron Nola was on the mound last night and again, struggled to get through the fifth inning. Nola pitched just 4.1 innings, allowing seven hits and four earned runs while striking out six.

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In an interesting shift of the lineup, Rob Thomson and company decided to move Nick Castellanos down to the eighth spot in the batting order. Over the past week, Castellanos has been struggling, notching three hits in his past 29 at-bats while striking out 11 times and walking only twice.

It worked.

In the bottom of the second inning, Castellanos ripped a 2-run double to left field, spring JT Realmuto and Brandon Marsh to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.

On the night, Castellanos went 2-3 from the dish, with two RBI, a walk, and a run scored.

A few batters later, Kyle Schwarber stepped up to the plate and crushed a 3-run home run, scoring Castellanos and Jake Cave to give the Phillies a 5-0 lead.

Kyle Schwarber now has 42 home runs on the season. Since the All-Star Break, the Phillies’ leadoff hitter has 20 home runs which is the most in Major League Baseball over that span.

Kyle Schwarber Home Run No. 42

Bad Aaron Nola

Just when you thought the Phillies were going to cruise to an easy win, Aaron Nola entered the fifth inning and allowed the Fish to get back into the game, coughing up four runs.

Garrett Hampson Solo HR
Jacob Stallings RBI Double
Josh Bell RBI Double
Jake Burger Sac Fly (Hoffman Pitching)

Luckily, the Phillies responded immediately in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded, Brandon Marsh ripped a double to right field, scoring Turner, Harper, and Stott to give the Phillies a commanding 8-4 lead.

Brandon Marsh 3-RBI Double

So yeah, bad start from Aaron Nola but the bullpen answered the call last night for The Fightins.

Jeff Hoffman, Gregory Soto, Jose Alvarado, and Craig Kimbrel combined to throw 4.2 innings, allowing three hits and no runs while striking out six.

Phillies Hunt for Red October

The Phillies now have a 3-game lead over the Cubs for the top spot in the NL Wild Card. You can add another game to that lead since the Phillies already won the head-to-head tiebreaker against Chicago.

Games Remaining: vs. MIA (1), vs. ATL (4), at STL (3), at ATL (3), vs. NYM (4), vs. PIT (3), at NYM (3)

Ranger Suarez (2-6, 3.91 ERA) will take the mound against Marlins’ Steven Okert (3-1, 3.44 ERA) today at 1:05PM. The Phillies winning their series against the Marlins and sending us directly into Philadelphia Eagles football would make for an incredible Sunday.

Get it done! Go Birds. Ring It.