Thursday, October 1, 2026
73 ° Clear
73 ° Clear
Aaron Nola reached a career milestone Saturday night, but the celebration was short-lived for both the veteran right-hander and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Nola recorded his 2,000th career strikeout before exiting with a right knee contusion in the sixth inning while the Phillies watched a late lead slip away before ultimately falling to the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-5, in 11 innings.
Nola dropped right into familiar habits against the Blue Jays, allowing a solo home run to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with two outs in the top of the first.
Nola then settled in, striking out the next four Blue Jays batters he would face. The third of those, Brandon Valenzuela, was the 2,000th strikeout of Nola’s career. Nola is now the fifth player to reach 2,000 strikeouts while donning a Phillies uniform.
Nola received a standing ovation from the 40,010 fans in attendance before getting back to work. He struck out Josh Smith to finish striking out the side in the second inning.
The third inning came around and found Nola in a spot of trouble. Myles Straw led off the inning with a patient full-count walk. When Nathan Lukes followed up with a single up the middle, Straw used his plus speed to go first-to-third with ease on the play.
One fielder’s choice comebacker to Nola later, Guerrero recorded his second RBI of the day against Nola, batting in Straw on a line drive into left field.
Nola continued to cruise into the top of the sixth inning where on the second pitch, Jesús Sánchez drove a grounder right back to Nola, colliding with his right leg in the process.
Nola attempted to stay in the game, but the pain was just a bit too much for the veteran. The Phillies later announced it was a right knee contusion for Nola with X-rays being taken and coming back negative.
Brooks Raley entered, having just begun warming up in the bullpen, and completed the inning without issue for Nola.
Nola’s day concluded having thrown 97 pitches. He struck out 8 batters, ending the day at 2,005 career strikeouts. He allowed two earned runs on six hits and two walks.
The Phillies managed to put a few runners on base throughout the early innings of the game, but were unable to plate any of them.
So the Phillies decided to start batting themselves in.
With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Trea Turner slung a slider from Max Scherzer into left field for his 17th home run of the season. Not to be outdone, Bryce Harper then followed up with a solo shot of his own to tie the game up at 2-2, his 25th on the year.
The back-to-back home runs for Turner and Harper came against their former teammate in Max Scherzer, knocking him out of the game. Just before the home runs, Scherzer struck out Kyle Schwarber, moving into 10th place all time with 3,516 career strikeouts.
The Phillies’ offense was just waking up.
Luis Arraez welcomed reliever Spencer Miles into the game with a single up the middle to keep the pressure up. Bryson Stott then slapped a double into right field, putting two runners in scoring position for the Phillies.
Brandon Marsh stepped up intending to add an extra-base hit of his own. His line drive into the outfield went right to right fielder Nathan Lukes, instead becoming a sacrifice fly, scoring Arraez to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead over the Blue Jays.
Justin Crawford, however, found the gap Marsh was looking for. He slung a line drive off of the bullpen fence, legging it out for an RBI triple.
Raley allowed a leadoff walk in the top of the seventh before being removed by Don Mattingly. Jonathan Bowlan entered, sitting down the Blue Jays in order.
José Alvarado then had his turn to pitch the top of the eighth, in hopes of setting up Jhoan Duran for the save.
Alvarado struck out Brett Bateman before letting up a full-count walk to Guerrero Jr. Now facing pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk, Alvarado could not find the strike zone, walking Kirk on five pitches. George Springer then entered to pinch run for the pinch-hitter.
Alvarado got Clement to bite on a 2-2 cutter, resulting in a short fly-out to right-center field for the second out of the inning. The out would not be enough, however, as Giménez tied the game up on a double into right center field on an 0-2 count.
“Any time your guys out of the bullpen walk guys,” Mattingly said, “it makes you uncomfortable. Especially late in the game, because it usually causes traffic and the game has a better chance of spiraling on you.”
As Mattingly walked out to remove Alvarado, the left-hander was showered with boos from the Philadelphia faithful.
Orion Kerkering entered to get the Phillies out of the inning with any further damage, getting Valenzuela to pop out in foul territory.
The Phillies had two runners reach base in the bottom of the eighth, but could not plate them on the inning.
Jhoan Duran allowed one base hit but kept the Blue Jays scoreless in the top of the ninth. Bryson Stott received three ground balls on the inning, demonstrating how well he is settling in at third.
One Garrett Stubbs strikeout and two fly outs into foul territory from Alec Bohm and Trea Turner later, and the Phillies and Blue Jays entered extra innings.
Chase Shugart entered for the top of the tenth inning. With Bateman beginning the inning at second, Shugart recorded an out on a groundout before walking Davis Schneider. With runners on first and second, Clement hit a slow-rolling grounder up the first base line.
Earlier in the game, Alec Bohm entered as a defensive replacement for Kyle Schwarber at first. Bohm fielded the ball before pausing in a moment of indecision as to which bag he should throw to. That second cost Bohm as Clement reached first before he finally tossed the ball over to Shugart covering the bag. The play goes down as a base hit, falling squarely into the category of a “mental error.”
“It's a tough one, a tough read,” explained Mattingly post-game. “It looked like Bohmer was indecisive on if he was going to come get it or go to the bag.”
Giménez then used the second out of the inning to take the lead for the blue Jays, hitting a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Bateman from third. Had Bohm just thrown the ball to second, the inning would have ended there.
A full-count ABS challenge ended the inning on a strike three call, stopping the damage at one run.
In their half of the 10th inning, Turner started on second for the Phillies. Harper used his out productively, moving Turner to third on a ground out to second. Arraez followed suit, hitting a sacrifice fly to left center field, scoring Turner to tie the game at 5-5.
With a clean slate and two outs, Bryson Stott fought his way back from an 0-2 count, working a walk to keep the inning going for the Phillies. Stott proceeded to steal second, his 21st stolen base of the year, to put the game-winning run in scoring position for Brandon Marsh. Marsh eventually flew out to left field to end the inning as the game went to 11 innings.
Chase Shugart was the seventh pitcher used by the Phillies on Saturday. The only relievers left that had yet to be used were Tim Mayza and Caleb Killian, both of whom were used Friday night. For all intents and purposes, that left Shugart as the pitcher on record for the Phillies no matter how this extra inning affair paid off.
Coming back out for the top of the 11th, Shugart efficiently worked the first two outs of the inning. On a full count to Nathan Lukes, the right fielder made it a 7-5 ballgame, slapping a home run into right field.
Down by two runs, the Phillies went quietly into the night as Lazaro Estrada retired the Phillies in order in the bottom of the 11th. The Blue Jays held on to clinch the series victory over the Phillies.
Alumni Weekend comes to a close on Sunday as Jesús Luzardo faces off against Shane Bieber.
The Phillies will look to avoid getting swept by the Blue Jays in the 1:35 p.m. matchup.
