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PHILADELPHIA — Their focus trained on present success but with a nostalgic ode to playoffs past, the Phillies trounced the Miami Marlins 7-1 Wednesday night, sweeping their NL Wild Card series and setting up an NL Divisional Series date against a favorite foe, the Atlanta Braves.
Aaron Nola, his future with the team uncertain, didn’t have his best fastball on this night yet brilliantly limited the Marlins to no runs and only three hits in a seven-inning stint.
The Phillies scratched out a pair of runs in the third inning on a double down the right field line by Kyle Schwarber, scoring Cristian Pache all the way from first base. Trea Turner then followed with an RBI single.
In the fourth, J.T. Realmuto greeted reliever David Robertson with a rocket to left that landed deep in the seats for a 3-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Nola was relying on his defense to escape trouble. He picked off Jon Berti in the third inning, catching him leaving a tad too early in an attempted steal of third base. And in both the fifth and sixth innings, Nola induced Marlins to hit into double plays. The Phillies, once an inconsistent outfit when it came to defense, fielded the ball superbly in the two games.
Nola’s craftiness in escaping trouble was rewarded in the bottom of the sixth, as Bryson Stott came up with the bases loaded to face hard-throwing lefty reliever Andrew Nardi. Stott saw a belt-high, inside fastball on the first pitch and turned on it, slamming it deep to right-center for a grand slam, bringing memories of Shane Victorino’s grand slam in the first round of the 2008 playoffs against Milwaukee’s CC Sabathia.
As a reaction heading up the first base line, Stott slammed his bat down, reminiscent of a memorable Rhys Hoskins highlight after hitting a home run in a huge spot during last year’s postseason run. Not that Stott intended it to be that.
“I didn’t really know I even did the bat spike,” Stott said. “Somebody told me. I don’t usually hit home runs and I don’t think I hit them far enough to do that. I just kind of got caught up in the moment, I guess.
“I know I yelled at the dugout (then) and couldn’t really hear myself. So I knew the crowd was loud. Anytime we get to play here you know it’s going to be loud from the very first pitch. I wouldn’t want to play anywhere else. It’s a phenomenal time anytime we take the field here in the postseason. And to do this at home was really cool.”
Cool as could be, Nola pitched through the seventh then called it an evening after 88 pitches, allowing the three hits with a walk and hit-batter, and striking out three. After a season of relative inconsistency, it was his third straight quality outing.
“I feel so proud of him because he went through a lot this year,” manager Rob Thomson said of Nola. “He struggled at times, there were the home runs (a career-high 32 allowed), and the big innings and things like that. But he just kept grinding, kept working … finally he found some stuff at the end of the year and he’s been lights out. I expected it, because I know who he is and I’ve seen him do this before. He just came through. He’s a warrior, he really is.”
“I just tried to stay within myself and make my pitches and not do anything crazy,” Nola said. “I’m pretty familiar with them and they’re pretty familiar with me. And our defense played awesome.”
He was relieved by sudden September grad Orion Kerkering, who breezed through a 1-2-3 eighth inning that included a Super Slider strikeout of Jesus Sanchez. Gregory Soto cleaned up in the ninth, allowing a run but nonetheless igniting a by-now familiar celebration on the field.
Game 1 of the NLDS is slated for Saturday in Atlanta at a time to be determined. Thomson has yet to name a starting pitcher, though Ranger Suarez might be a good guess.
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