Phillies beat White Sox off Aaron Nola’s gem, Nick Pivetta’s two-inning save

It did not come Saturday night until the seventh inning, but trouble finally arrived for Aaron Nola. Nola had cruised through the first six innings of a 3-2 win against the White Sox, giving the Phillies exactly what they needed after an embarrassing loss.

But now the White Sox had runners on second and third with one out in a one-run game. Finally, it seemed, they would crack Nola. But the pitcher, as he seems to often do, steadied himself. Nola retired the next two batters, extinguished Chicago’s rally nearly as soon as it began, and pushed the Phillies an inning closer to a needed win.

“I thought Noles really hit his stride in the fifth inning. He started to get really fierce,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He actually came out early in the game with an assassin’s edge. He had a lot of velocity on the fastball and the curveball had a lot of bite to it. He looked about as physically strong as we’ve seen him look all year long.”

The Phillies started Saturday with an empty bullpen, a starting pitcher playing left field, and an outfielder throwing 77 mph fastballs in the early hours of the morning. It was not the ideal way for a playoff-hunting team to begin the first weekend of August.

It was a bad situation, Kapler said, of a 15-inning loss that began on Friday and ended on Saturday. So how did the Phillies respond? They turned to Nola. He struck out 10, walked two, and allowed one run in seven innings. Nick Pivetta, pitching on back-to-back days for the first time, locked down the eighth and escaped the ninth for his first career save.

A night after a rough loss, Nola was a stopper and Pivetta was the closer. It worked. Nola has a 2.01 ERA in his last eight starts, seven of which his team has won. How nice is it to have Nola after a night like Friday?

“Really nice. The nicest,” Rhys Hoskins said. “Obviously, every time he steps on the mound, we feel really good about our chances to win the ball game.”

Bryce Harper and Hoskins -- who struggled Friday night as the lineup left 15 runners on base -- hit back-to-back homers in the fourth. Harper crushed a fastball 406 feet into the second deck in right field. A pitch later, Hoskins sent a sinker 406 feet over the center-field wall. The Phillies needed just two pitches -- and 812 feet -- to give Nola the run-support he required.

If the Phillies are to grab one of the National League’s second wild cards, they will need Nola to pitch every fifth day the way he did on Saturday night. But they will also need Harper and Hoskins -- the power source of a lineup that is producing less power than anticipated -- to swing the way they did in the fourth inning.

But the Phillies, just like they did a night earlier, were quick to let the White Sox off the hook. They loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, but their lone run came when Cesar Hernandez beat out a potential double-play grounder. The Phillies could not find the knockout blow.

A big hit in the seventh would have been even more vital had Nola not escaped the top of the inning. Eloy Jimenez singled with one out and Tim Anderson followed with a double to put Nola on the ropes. The next batter -- Yolmer Sanchez -- tried to bunt in a run, but first baseman Hoskins charged and made a perfect toss to Andrew Knapp, who tagged the sliding Jimenez at the plate.

The Phillies coaching staff told their infielders before the series to be alert of Chicago’s penchant for squeeze plays. They tried bunting a few times Friday and the Phillies were ready for it on Saturday.

“It was a sensational play,” Kapler said. “I don’t think you can play that ball any better. It was a great tag as well. Both guys were in the right position. You have to be mentally prepared for that to happen. We always talk about anticipation and seeing the play unfold before it does. That will give you your best chance to succeed in that moment. It was a really huge play in the game. Obviously, it fired up the dugout.”

“Oh man, humongous,” Nola said. “Great play by Rhys. Great play by Knapp, holding onto that ball. That’s not a small guy coming in and sliding into him at the plate. Props to both of them. It was a huge play.”

Nola needed just one more out. He had thrown 90 pitches and struck out nine batters. But he was not yet finished. He blew a fastball past Matt Skole, caught him with a nice curveball, and then blasted another 96 mph fastball past him for strike three. Nola walked off the mound as the crowd cheered. After a tough night, which bled into a weird morning, Nola gave the Phillies exactly what they needed.

“I just try and go as long as I can, no matter what,” Nola said. “But yeah, for sure, those guys might not have as much sleep as usual because it’s a 15-inning game, but I just try to go as long as I can every time.”