Aaron Nola continued his resurgence and Bryson Stott hit the bomb of his life to power the Philadelphia Phillies (78-60) to a 2-1 victory in the series opener against the Wild Card rival Arizona Diamondbacks (73-66) for their fifth straight win and 14th in their last 16 games.
Nola notched his sixth win of the season and third of August, lowering his ERA for the eight straight game to 4.93.
The Phillies capped off their
tremendous August with their 21st victory of the month, the major’s best record for that page of the calendar.
Stott opened the scoring with a 2-1 moon shot off Brandon Pfaadt in the second inning that traveled 464 feet for his 10th home run of the season.
Bryce Harper extended the lead to two with an RBI double in the third, which also his extended his career-best on-base streak to 33 games. His single in the eighth made it his 25th multi-hit game over that span.
Nola entered the sixth inning at 92 pitches and left at 104 after giving up a hit and a walk with no outs. Alex McFarlane continued his dominant rookie campaign by bailing out Nola with a scoreless frame to lower his ERA to 0.87 in 10 appearances.
Orion Kerkering battled through a hit and a walk while getting a pair of outs and was rescued by Brooks Raley to finish the seventh inning.
Jose Alvarado held the eighth and Jhoan Duran, despite allowing a pair of weak infield hits to build a threat, saved his 29th game.
With 24 games to go, an Atlanta loss and a San Diego win earlier in the night, the Phillies sit 4.5 back from the Braves for the division and five games up on the Padres for the second wild card spot, with the Diamondbacks on the outside looking in.
Jesus Luzardo will face fellow southpaw all-star, Eduardo Rodriguez in the middle game of the series tomorrow night.
