‘We’re built for this’: Bryson Stott and Aaron Nola lead the Phillies to inevitable NLDS battle with the Braves

These Fish were fried on arrival. All the Phillies had to do was eat.

The Marlins made the playoffs for the first time in two decades, excluding the COVID-19 2020, and promptly proved they didn’t belong. The second of three wild-card seeds lacked its two best starters, Sandy Alcantara and Eury Pérez. With them, the Marlins might have had a shot. Without them, they had no chance.

Not against Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, baseball’s top starting tandem since 2020, according to Marlins skipper Skip Schumaker. They combined for 13⅔ innings and one run.

One.

» READ MORE: Murphy: Stott’s grand slam was bigger than it looked. Beware, Braves. The Phillies are back and rolling.

“Those guys are going to haunt my dreams,” said Schumaker, who was the bench coach in St. Louis last season when Wheeler and Nola knocked the Cardinals out of the wild-card series.

“We always try to outdo each other,” Wheeler said near midnight Wednesday, his clothes dripping alcohol into a pool of booze at his feet.

“I love watching him pitch and following him up,” Nola said.

“As expected,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson. “That’s what they do. They shut people down. They’re really pitching well right now. They’re on a roll.”

Not against a lineup with a two-time MVP but whose second-year, No. 7 hitter might be its most polished. Bryson Stott crushed a bat-slam grand slam in the sixth that essentially ended this mini-series. That made the score 7-0, and the Phillies won Game 2, 7-1.

The 45,738 red-and-white maniacs at Citizens Bank Park spent their ample energy on song and roar with reddened October faces. You’ve seen this show before.

Clubhouse musical director Garrett Stubbs, the plucky backup catcher, led the festivities in red overalls, one strap coyly left unhitched.

“Dancing On My Own” played, as did several less mentionable ditties.

Champagne flowed. Budweiser, too.

Inevitably.

» READ MORE: Phillies ace Zack Wheeler rebounds from World Series fiasco with another historic performance

Thomson said it after the Phils clinched the top wild-card seed last week. He said it again Wednesday night:

“We’re built for series-type baseball.”

Next stop: Atlanta, where, on their way to the World Series, the Phillies began their beat-down of the Braves in the NLDS last year.

Neither Wheeler nor Nola will factor in Game 1 at Atlanta on Saturday. Both should be available for Game 2 there Monday.

How good were Wheeler and Nola? Nola went seven scoreless innings in Game 2 on Wednesday, and Wheeler was even better in 6⅔ in Game 1 on Tuesday.

How deep is this Phillies lineup? That two-time MVP, cleanup hitter Bryce Harper, had one hit in the two-game sweep. Leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber, whose 93 home runs the past two seasons lead the National League, had no home runs. And they scored 11 runs in two games.

The Braves were the No. 2 seed in 2022. They earned the top playoff seed this year. Don’t sweat it. The Phillies haven’t looked this good all season. And they’re getting better.

Rookie phenom Orion Kerkering, who rocketed through the farm system in his first professional season, dominated the eighth inning. Eight of his nine pitches were strikes.

Grading on the curve of Schwarber in left field and Aaron “One Big Inning” Nola, they played the best baseball of their season the past two nights.

They tortured the Marlins’ starters. Jesús Luzardo needed 90 pitches for his three-run four innings Tuesday in Game 1. It took Braxton Garrett 56 pitches for his two-run three innings Wednesday.

Nola, meanwhile, escaped trouble with double plays in the fifth and sixth innings, picked off a runner who tried to steal third base in the third inning, and needed just 88 pitches to earn his check. It might have been his last check as a Phillie, and his last start as a home pitcher at Citizens Bank Park. Nola will be a free agent after the season, and after nine years, 241 starts including playoffs — 241 starts that weren’t always the cleanest — he absorbed the adulation.

» READ MORE: Rob Thomson and Dave Dombrowski have been brilliant in guiding the Phillies back to the playoffs

The 45,738 in the packed house Wednesday knew that, and they stood and applauded him before the game as he ambled to the bullpen to prepare.

“I just tried to soak it in as best as possible,” Nola said, smiling. “To walk out there tonight, have a wild-card at home, especially one game to zero. It’s already a packed house when I go out there to warm up.”

Wheeler got the same chilling ovation Tuesday, but he barely sweated in his 100-pitch Tuesday performance.

They can’t admit it, but the Phillies never really sweated this edition of the Marlins.

They just pulled their chairs up to the table and ate.