Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Spring Training Game 21 - 2020 Topps 1985 Topps Baseball #85TB-AN Aaron Nola

Phillies 4
, Yankees 0
Spring Training Game 21 - Monday Night, March 22nd in Tampa
Record - 10-10-1

One Sentence Summary:  Aaron Nola hosted a pitching clinic against the Yankees "A" line-up, tossing six shutout innings in this 4-0 Phillies win.

What It Means:  Earlier in the day, Nola was named the team's opening day starting pitcher.  It will be his fourth consecutive opening day start, the longest streak for the Phillies since Steve Carlton pitched 10 straight opening days between 1977 and 1986.

What Happened:  Nola allowed 1 hit and struck out 9 in his best start of the spring.  Brandon Kintzler, Tony Watson, Hector Neris and Enyel De Los Santos kept the Yankees from scoring over the final three innings.  The Phillies scored their first two runs courtesy of an RBI-single from Rhys Hoskins in the third and an RBI-double (lost in the lights) from Jeff Mathis in the fourth.  Didi Gregorius hit a two-run home run off his former team in the seventh.

Featured Card:  I haven't added any 2021 Nola cards to my collection yet, but I still have plenty of his cards from 2020 not yet featured in posts.  Topps celebrated the 35th anniversary of its 1985 set last season with cards in the style of that set appearing as inserts in packs of 2020 Topps.

Camp Head Count:  63 - 3 = 60.  Before the game, the Phillies optioned Ramon Rosso (rhp) and reassigned non-roster invitees Bryan Mitchell (rhp) and Michael Ynoa (rhp) to minor league camp.  While there are still technically 60 players in camp, 20 of those are on the mini-camp invitee list.  29 players remain from the Phillies 40-man roster with 11 of the non-roster invitees still in the mix - some more than others.

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