Aaron Nola has his best start of the season in the Phillies' series-opening win vs. Mets

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sep 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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PHILADELPHIA — Aaron Nola fired a sinker past Brandon Nimmo, who tipped it foul into J.T. Realmuto’s glove. As he walked off the mound, his seventh and final strikeout of the night secured, the crowd stood and clapped their appreciation.

Nola rebounded from a string of rough outings with his best start of the year on Monday night against the New York Mets. Over six scoreless innings, Nola only allowed three hits. Three of his strikeouts came on his curveball.

The Phillies offense needed every bit of the lockdown performance from Nola and the bullpen for the 1-0 series-opening win against the Mets.

In his first four starts since returning from the injured list on Aug. 17, Nola had an 8.38 ERA. After his latest meltdown — in which he allowed five earned runs before recording a single out against the Milwaukee Brewers — Nola said he needed to focus on getting the leadoff hitter out.

He accomplished that mission on Monday. Nola retired the leadoff hitter five out of six times. Though he walked Brett Baty to lead off the fifth, he later picked him off at first to end the inning.

Mets rookie starter Nolan McLean had dominated the Phillies the last time he faced them at Citi Field last month, holding them to four hits over eight scoreless innings. The Phillies matched that by the second inning on Monday. In total, they tagged him for seven hits, the most in any outing of his young career. The Phillies were the first team to face McLean twice, after he debuted on Aug. 16.

Still, the Phillies didn’t capitalize as much as they could have. They scored their only run in the second inning, on three straight singles from outfielders Max Kepler, Harrison Bader and Nick Castellanos. The single from Castellanos drove in Kepler.

But they ran into extra outs on the bases and didn’t come through with runners on. Bader went 3 for 4, but was thrown out attempting to stretch a single to a double in the second, and was caught stealing in the fourth. The Phillies finished with 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base.

After a scoreless seventh from David Robertson, Matt Strahm pitched the eighth. He walked Francisco Lindor to put the tying run aboard, but a diving grab by Bryson Stott on a ground-ball from Juan Soto ended the inning.

The Mets put the go-ahead run in scoring position against Jhoan Duran in the ninth after the Phillies closer allowed a single to Pete Alonso and a double to Mark Vientos. He struck out Jeff McNeil and Francisco Álvarez to earn his 28th save of the year. The Phillies shrank their magic number to win the National League East to 11.