Phillies Win Series in Exciting Game in Extra Frames as Aaron Nola and Jordan Romano Shine
Apr 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Aaron Nola (27) throws the ball against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images
The Phillies are looking to do something that has not happened this season: walk into Wrigley Field in Chicago and win a series. They were also looking to continue the hot hitting and the strong starting pitching performance from Jesus Luzardo yesterday.
The biggest fear was that Aaron Nola was matched up against Jameson Taillon, and Nola’s first 5 games gave Phils fans a case of indigestion and questioned what happened to their one-time ace. It’s not too hard to see why Nola hasn’t been successful, and we can note 2 things which manager Rob Thomson has distilled down into 2 issues, that is, Nola’s control and lack of control, and snap on his cutter.
In the second inning, Nola faced his only adversity when Nico Hoerner and Pete Crow-Armstrong hit long doubles. Crow-Armstrong’s looked like a home run off the bat, but the Wrigley wind knocked it down, but it still brought Hoerner in to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.
Not to be outdone, in the third, Bryson Stott hit a sharp triple to right, followed up by a single by Trea Turner, tying the game at 1-1.
Through the first 4 innings, Nola got ahead on 10-12 at-bats, but also this is incredibly important because going into tonight’s start, hitters were hitting .291 against Nola on the first pitch, up over 100 points over last season. This was part of why Nola’s first 4 starts were so disastrous. He was constantly pitching from behind, which not only drove up his pitch count but also put him in a position to have to give in, and teams knew it, and they were capitalizing on it like never before in Nola’s career.
Nola went into the 7th inning until he gave his first free pass. However, he recovered by rolling a double play and got through the inning, which has not been something that has happened all season. Not to mention his line for the night, 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 1 BB. It was a vintage Nola Performance, right when the Phillies needed it.
In the top of the 8th inning, Alec Bohm walked, and Thomson put on the bunt sign to Johan Rojas to move Bohm over to hopefully manufacture a run. On the first pitch, he showed bunt, and the ball was outside, made a weak offering at the next pitch, a fastball up, then on 1-1, he put the bunt on again, but this time he stabbed at a high sweeper, forcing him to swing, and the next pitch he grounded into a double play, killing the mini rally before it could get started.
This at-bat was emblematic of the Phillies’ struggles on offense this season — ignoring fundamentals and Rojas not setting his feet early for the 2 bunt attempts, causing him to stab at pitches not friendly to bunts to begin with. The look of disappointment on Thomson’s face has become a common one, sadly.
The ninth inning for the Phils offense was in a similar position, Kyle Schwarber walked to extend his streak of games reaching base to 32, then Nick Castellanos took a long fly ball to left, bringing Ian Happ to the wall, so far back that he reached out to the currently dormant ivy to feel for the wall reaching up to make the catch. Literally a foot from being a basketball home run.
Jose Alvarado came in to dominate the bottom of the 9th inning, sending us into extra frames, where the Phillies walked the bases loaded after J.T. Realmuto and Max Kepler both showed incredible patience, which was rewarded when Bohm sacrificed in a run with a long fly out to right, and Realmuto went to third.
On the next play, Rojas bunted to first, and for some reason, Realmuto tried scoring and was out by 10 feet. Stott walked to load the bases again. Turner came up in a huge spot, and grounded to Cubs’ third baseman, Vidal Brujan, who either has delusional confidence in his arm or doesn’t know who Turner is. Turner, knowing how important the moment was, used his speed to leg out an infield single, with his fastest 90′ sprint of the season, getting down the line at 31.4 feet per second. The Phillies went into the bottom of the 10th with a 3-1 lead.
Raising the pulses of Phillies fans, troubled Jordan Romano came in to close out the 10th, and did something he hasn’t done all season: close out a game with no drama. Romano looked like the closer that Dave Dombrowski went after in the offseason. He closed out the game with a kick save that would have made Ron Hextall proud.
Phillies take the series 2 games to 1. This is the first road series the Phillies have won since the opening series against the Nationals. The grit that it took to tough out this win is something the Phils can build on moving forward. This was the game both Nola and Romano needed. Hopefully, this is what they needed to build some confidence.
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Steve Hamilton
Steve may have been born in California, but don’t let that fool you. After dating a local woman and clashing with her and her family over sports for decades, he has an affinity for Philly sports. Balancing love for Philly and Bay Area sports teams may seem impossible, we can all agree that the Cowboys are the true evil.
