Sunday, August 22, 2021

Game 123 - 2021 Stadium Club Virtual Reality #VR-20 Aaron Nola

Padres 4
, Phillies 3 (10 Innings)
Game 123 - Late Saturday Night, August 21st in San Diego
Record - 62-61, 2nd Place, 5 games behind the Braves

One Sentence Summary:  Aaron Nola was perfect for six innings and dominant for 8 2/3, but the Padres stunned the Phillies with four late inning runs to walk-off with a devastating win.

What It Means:  Pain.  In the span of one week, the Phillies went from being tied for first place to being five games behind the Braves.  Their eight-game winning streak to begin August is a distant memory.

What Happened:  Nola was dominant until Jake Cronenworth homered with two outs in the ninth to tie the score at 3-3.  Connor Brogdon uncorked a wild pitch in the 10th, that catcher Andrew Knapp should have been able to handle, to hand the Padres a walk-off 4-3 win.  Nola was facing his brother Austin for the first time and he struck him out in the second, got him to pop up in the fifth and walked him in the seventh.

The slumping Phillies went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.  Their runs came via a solo home run by Odubel Herrera to lead off the game, and then from two hit batters by reliever Tim Hill with the bases loaded in the eighth.  Nola had started that eighth inning rally with a lead-off double, just one of four hits on the night from the slumbering Phillies offense.

Featured Card:  Nola's perfect game was ruined in the bottom of the seventh when Brad Miller couldn't field a hard hit ground ball at first for an E3.  Nola lost his no-hitter two batters later when Manny Machado lined a single to center to tie the score at 1-1.  He allowed just two hits (Machado's single and Cronenworth's home run) while throwing 117 pitches and striking out 11.  He gets the card here, but this was also one of the most painful Phillies losses in recent memory.

1 comment:

John Bateman said...

The card has a 90s look to it