Aaron Nola’s best stretch in a long time continues in win over Mets

NEW YORK — The Phillies got a fantastic Aaron Nola start at the right time.

With a bullpen game on Friday, Nola was incredibly efficient in a 3-0 shutout victory over the New York Mets on Thursday night at Citi Field. It’s the 12th shutout victory on the road for the Phillies this year and 19th overall. It’s the most shutouts they’ve had in a season since they shut out opponents 21 times in 2011.

The Phillies’ magic number to make the postseason for a fifth-consecutive season is 5.

In six of his seven innings, Nola needed 11 pitches or fewer to record three outs. His only long inning came in the sixth, when Brett Baty worked out a ten-pitch walk. The next batter Nick Morabito snapped Nola’s no-hit bid with a base hit. Through five innings, Nola faced the minimum and threw only 47 pitches.

“He just kind of had them off balance all night long,” interim manager Don Mattingly said postgame. “Pretty much easy innings, got a couple double plays in there.”

Nola was pulled after seven innings and just 81 pitches. Mattingly explained his reasoning for not bringing him back out to pitch in the eighth inning for the first time all season.

“I would have sent him back out, but just checking with him, he seemed hesitant to me,” Mattingly said. “He felt like he didn’t have the same fastball. He was kind of running out of gas. So more than anything, it was reading him.”

Nola is in the middle of one of his best stretches in a long time. Through his last eight starts, Nola has allowed only 10 earned runs in 48 1/3 innings. He has allowed three runs or fewer in each of his last 10 starts. It’s his longest such streak since the summer of 2018, when he went 12 straight without allowing more than three runs.

After a year removed from an ankle and rib injury that cost him three months in 2025, Nola credits better health for his recent stretch of solid outings.

“Last year, I had the ankle injury, of course, and just trying to battle through that,” Nola said. “A lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Didn’t realized how much I used my ankle until I really hurt it. Just trying to keep that thing maintained and keep everything else on my body healthy and sharp.”

Since the All-Star break, Nola has a 3.08 ERA. Jesús Luzardo is the only Phillies starting pitcher with a lower second-half ERA.

With Luzardo’s status up in the air, a resurgent Nola could be key in the postseason.

“We really hope he can come back healthy and quick,” Nola said. “We really need him, but all the starters here, we’re just trying to take it game by game.”

Nola also recorded his second pickoff of the season. He caught Juan Soto too far off the bag and the first baseman Alec Bohm was able to tag him out with ease.

Before the league limited pickoff moves to two per at-bat in 2023, Nola loved to control the run game through frequent throw overs to first. Most were unsuccessful, but it was his way of making the sure the game was played at his pace. He has since had to make numerous adjustments to the speed of the game in the pitch-clock era, but he sure misses the time when he could slow things down.

“I didn’t really have a slide step,” Nola said. “My main focus was to keep the runner as close as possible and hold the ball and pick off. Not hold the ball and pitch and give the catcher a chance to throw a guy out. I feel like I did that for years decently. That was a big change for me, when they put that rule in.”

With runs hard to come by, the Phillies sacrificed their way onto the scoreboard. They had three sacrifice bunts and two sacrifice flies. Per the Fox broadcast, it was the first time the Phillies had five sacrifices in a single game since Aug. 23, 2012.

Trea Turner also made things happen on the bases after walking twice. His slid into second on a close ground ball off the bat of Bryce Harper, which led to a Phillies 1-0 lead as the runner on third Brandon Marsh came around to score. On his second walk, Turner went first to third on a back pick gone wrong and scored on the second Phillies sacrifice fly of the game.

In a terrifying moment in the sixth inning, Mets first baseman Jared Young was carted off the field after colliding with pitcher Nolan McLean’s knee on a ground ball between the mound and first base. He was taken to the hospital and the Mets said Young has feeling in all of his extremities.

Mets interim manager Andy Green told reporters postgame that a CT scan on Young came back negative. Young is dealing with concussion symptoms. “We avoided the scariest outcomes,” Green said.

Reliever Jonathan Bowlan was removed from the game in the eighth inning due to right groin tightness.

The Phillies (85-68) will play the second of four against the Mets (69-84) at Citi Field on Friday night. They have not yet decided on an opener, but it will be a bullpen game. The Phillies will face left-hander Zac Thornton.