Daily News | A brilliant Aaron Nola clinched the playoffs. He and Zack Wheeler are why the Phillies can win it.
It was never going to be easy. Certainly not as easy as Aaron Nola made it look for the first 20 batters of his Monday night. Making it through three rounds of the National League playoffs was always going to be a slog. But if thewrapped up here, on the road, in Houston, just a couple of days removed from a magic number that stood at six, they were going to have a chance.
They have them. More than they have since that 2011 season when the Phillies entered the postseason with three pitchers who every five days seemed to do the things Nola did last night. That’s how good that rotation was. That’s how good the top of this one can be. Two sharp singles ended the bid for perfection. The final line: 6⅔ innings, two hits, no walks, nine strikeouts, 88 pitches. It was a splendid piece of pitching in a spot where the Phillies demanded it. Less than a week ago, they were in the midst of a five-game losing streak, their playoff odds having dropped from dropped from 97% to roughly 60. Two days ago, they were blown out in the first game of a doubleheader against a Nationals team they’d dominated all season.
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