There have been plenty of disappointments on the Phillies’ roster in 2025, but arguably none have been greater than pitchers Aaron Nola and Jordan Romano. But facing the Cubs on Sunday night, they showed signs that they can put their difficult first months behind them. Nola pitched seven strong innings, and Romano had a clean inning for the save, and the Phillies picked up a 3-1 ten inning victory.
Nola looked good from the very start. His velocity was up from his previous appearances, and not only was the ball travelling faster, but he was also locating it well. He managed far more swings and misses than in previous starts.
To be fair, the wind was blowing in, and there were a couple of balls that might have not been outs on a warm summer night at Citizens Bank Park. But considering he’s been a bit unlucky thus far in the season, he deserved a little good fortune.
That was about the only good fortune Nola received on Sunday, because his teammates weren’t up to his level. The Cubs’ one run came with two outs in the second, when a ball of the bat of Nico Hoerner fell in front of centerfielder Johan Rojas.
It looked like there was miscommunication between him and right fielder Nick Castellanos, and it wouldn’t be the first time that happened this season. The next batter was Pete Crow-Armstrong, and he golfed what looked like a good pitch to the wall for an RBI double.
Run support has been an issue for Nola all season, and that continued on Sunday. Cubs starter Jameson Taillon didn’t strike out many batters, but the Phillies spent most of the game popping the ball up or hitting easy grounders.
The one regulation run came in the third when Bryson Stott hit a triple and Trea Turner singled him home.
With the game tied in the tenth, the Phillies were gifted a couple of runs by the Cubs. Reliever Julian Merryweather had all sorts of control issues and began the inning with consecutive walks. With the bases loaded thanks to the extra inning ghost runner, Alec Bohm scored the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly. But it looked like the Phillies were about to squander a chance to extend the lead when a poorly conceived and poorly executed squeeze attempt by Rojas resulted in an out at the plate.
But Turner followed with a ground ball that Cubs’ third baseman Vidal Brujan first backed up on, and then double clutched his throw, allowing Turner to beat out an RBI infield single.
Orion Kerkering and Jose Alvarado followed Nola with scoreless innings, meaning it was left to Romano to close it down. The Phillies are claiming that Romano’s problems were related to tipping his pitches. It would be nice if that is true, but it doesn’t explain the outings when his velocity was alarmingly down.
I don’t know if Romano is back, but he looked good here. He got a strikeout, induced a shallow fly to left, and then a ground out back to the mound, and the Cubs weren’t even able to advance the ghost runner to third.
Considering how badly the Phillies were reeling after Friday night’s loss, it was a great sign for them to come back and win this series, especially since this game felt very much like a loss at times. After an off day on Monday, the Phillies will return home and try to continue their winning ways against the Nationals on Tuesday.,
[ajax_load_more]