The Phillies’ 2-0 win against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon was similar to their previous two. The top of the lineup was quiet — with the exception of a towering two-run home run by Nick Castellanos in the bottom of the fifth. The Phillies leaned on strong pitching from Aaron Nola — and a bullpen that has a 1.85 ERA since May 1 — along with strong defense.
Nola is usually efficient, but he was on a different level against the Brewers. The Phillies right-hander needed just 71 pitches to get through six innings. He needed 93 to get through seven.
Of those 93 pitches, 68 were strikes. He allowed just two hits over his seven scoreless innings, with no walks and five strikeouts. The Brewers made hard contact on only three pitches against Nola, and two of those three were caught for outs.
Nola now has a 2.77 ERA. Wednesday marked his fifth straight quality start.
Jeff Hoffman entered in the eighth and pitched a scoreless and hitless frame, with one walk and one strikeout. Jose Alvarado pitched the ninth, allowing one hit with three strikeouts.
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There were a few savvy defensive plays to choose from, but the ones that stuck out were Bryson Stott’s leaping grab in the top of the third to rob Gary Sánchez of a line drive hit, and catcher Garrett Stubbs’ play at the plate to prevent a run from scoring in the seventh.
With a runner on first in the third and no outs, Sánchez hit a liner above Stott that the Phillies’ second baseman caught at the top of his glove. It curtailed any momentum the Brewers were building. Nola induced back-to-back groundouts to end the inning.
In the seventh inning, William Contreras hit a leadoff double. Christian Yelich grounded out, moving Contreras to third base. Then Willy Adames hit a ball that took an awkward bounce just before it reached third baseman Alec Bohm.
Bohm fielded it cleanly and fired the ball to Stubbs at home plate. Stubbs tagged Adames in time.
It was another playoff-like game. The Phillies combined for only three hits against a tough Brewers pitching staff, with five walks and four strikeouts. But they did just enough to manage a series sweep against a team that was well above .500.
