Phillies pick up third win behind strong pitching from Aaron Nola and clutch hitting from Kyle Schwarber

WASHINGTON — The Phillies won their third game of the season on Friday night because of their pitching. Starter Aaron Nola and relievers Matt Strahm, Seranthony Domínguez, and José Alvarado held the Nationals to just two hits en route to a 4-0 victory. Nola struggled with his control — allowing four walks — but the bullpen walked just one.

It was an impressive showing, and a necessary showing. While the Phillies lineup combined for four runs on nine hits and tallied nine walks, they also missed some key opportunities to pile on. They loaded the bases three times and grounded into inning-ending double plays twice. They went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position, leaving 12 men on base. Kyle Schwarber accounted for three of the Phillies’ four runs, with one run scored and two RBIs. Bryce Harper went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two strikeouts.

As was the case in Philadelphia, the conditions in Nationals Park weren’t great. Temperatures hovered in the high 40s. Here are few more notes from the win: .

Schwarber is hitting .286/.355/.500 through the first seven games of the season. It’s a small sample, but impressive for someone who normally is a slow starter. Interestingly enough, most of his hits have come off lefties. Schwarber has seven hits against 16 at-bats against southpaws, versus one hit against 12 at-bats against righties.

He isn’t reading too much into it. But he is happy with his consistency. He feels like he is putting himself in a good position to hit more times than not. The righty hits will come.

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“Left, right, it really doesn’t matter,” Schwarber said. “I think there’s two different mindsets whenever you face a lefty, whenever you face a righty. For me, at least. I view them as two different approaches. So it’s great right now, you know, the approach is going great off of left handed pitching, and being to put the ball in play, and put the barrel on the ball. Working counts, things like that. That’s good. and keep improving on the right-handed things.”

Added manager Rob Thomson: “I think it’s the fact that he’s committed to really using the entire field, and it keeps it him on the baseball, and [he] doesn’t go out and get it. Against lefties, the ball is running away from you, and you run out of bat if you’re going to get it. So I think that commitment has helped him against left-handers.”

Thomson felt that Nola may have been dealing with some bad luck in his first start of the season, when he allowed seven runs (six earned) through 4⅓ innings against the Braves. This was a far better outing — Nola held the Nationals to two hits and four walks with four strikeouts through 5⅔ innings — but it still was uncharacteristic.

“Chilly, chilly a little bit,” Nola said. “I feel like my misses weren’t terrible. I’ll have to go back and look. I know to [Joey] Gallo, I was missing a little bit high to him. And he was laying off some good pitches. They laid off some good pitches, too. They don’t chase too, too much over there. Got some good hitters on that team. But, overall, felt pretty good. It was a good win tonight.”

Nola allowed four or more walks in a regular-season start only once last year, on Aug. 16. The last time he’d done it before then was on Sept. 17, 2020. He struggled to induce swing-and-miss against the Braves and struggled with that again on Friday in Washington. Of his 95 pitches, 56 were strikes.

To be fair, neither the Braves nor the Nationals are known for striking out a lot, and two games is a small sample. But it’s worth noting.

Nola said that having less swing-and-miss doesn’t bother him, as long as he’s getting guys out.

In the top of the third, J.T. Realmuto broke toward second base and was caught in a rundown. Bryce Harper was on third base. All of a sudden, the Nationals infielders reversed course, in attempt to catch Harper, who was veering toward home plate. They did — the scorekeepers ruled it “caught stealing home” — in a chaotic way. It was a 1-3-4-1-5-2-3 caught stealing, or as Scott Franzke called it on the broadcast, “somebody’s phone number.” Realmuto was not credited with a stolen base.

“J.T. left a little bit early, he went first move,” Thomson said. “I’m not going to give the strategy of the whole thing, but he should have just waited a little bit.”

Johan Rojas entered Friday’s game with just one hit — a very soft hit — through 15 at-bats this season. That is still true, but he showed a positive sign Friday night. Thomson has emphasized how happy he is with Rojas’ lack of chase, and, in the top of the eighth, Rojas flashed that plate discipline. He fell behind 0-2 against right-handed reliever Tanner Rainey, but worked a walk following an eight-pitch at-bat.

It was his second walk of the season. Rojas had just five walks through 149 at-bats last year. Of course, he is going need to do more than that to stay on the team. Rojas went 0-for-3 on Friday with a strikeout. But if you’re looking for signs of growth, that could be one.

Thomson also noted that Rojas hit a fly ball toward right field in the top of the sixth inning.

“The walk, and he finally got a ball in the air, down in the right-field corner,” Thomson said. “Not that we want him to hit fly balls. But we’re trying to stay away from smothering the ball.”