Austin Nola drives in game’s only run to beat the Phillies and his brother, Aaron Nola

SAN DIEGO — Padres catcher Austin Nola entered Friday night’s game with no hits against his little brother, Phillies starter Aaron Nola. They’d only faced each other once before, on Aug. 21, 2021, when Aaron carried a perfect game into the seventh inning. The best Austin could do that night was a walk; he ended up going 0-for-2 with a strikeout. The first hit against his brother would have to wait.

Initially, it looked like Austin was going to have to wait some more. He grounded out and struck out in his first two at-bats against his brother on Friday night. The strikeout, which came in the bottom of the fourth, made Austin look stumped. He fouled off three pitches, all dotted along the edges of the strike zone, and then struck out on the fourth, a 93.7 mph sinker that just caught a piece. He slumped back to the Padres dugout as the camera panned to Nola’s parents, A.J. and Stacie, who shared a good laugh.

Austin got his revenge in the bottom of the sixth. Aaron had allowed no runs and only five hits when Austin stepped to the plate. With Eric Hosmer on second base, he roped a line-drive single to right field to put the Padres on the board, 1-0. It ultimately proved to be enough to give his team the 1-0 win over the Phillies on Friday night. The camera caught Austin grinning over at his brother from first base.

Aaron said he wore his brother out last year after striking him out the first time they faced each other. He has no doubt that he’ll hear from Austin sometime soon.

“I’ll hear about it tonight,” Aaron said. “He runs his mouth a lot.”

Sibling rivalry aside, it was another great performance from Aaron, who is in the midst of one of the best seasons of his career. The Phillies starter exited the game after seven innings pitched, have allowed only the one earned run to his brother, seven hits and two walks with 10 strikeouts. His 10 strikeouts tied for the most he’s had in game all season (he also punched out 10 batters on May 26 against the Braves).

This four-game series against San Diego is now tied at 1-1. The Phillies are 37-35 and return to Petco Park at 10:10 p.m. Saturday.

After a night in which the Phillies put up six runs off of one of the best pitchers in the league in Joe Musgrove, their bats went silent on Friday. They were facing another tough pitcher in Mackenzie Gore, but not one nearly as tough as Musgrove. Regardless, Gore held them to just three hits and no runs, with four walks.

From there, the Phillies offense went hitless against the Padres bullpen until the ninth inning. With one out, Alec Bohm and Matt Vierling hit singles off of Taylor Rogers to put runners on first and second, but Johan Camargo lined out. Yairo Muñoz walked to load the bases for Kyle Schwarber, but Schwarber flied out. They had eight opportunities with runners in scoring position but failed to capitalize on any of them.

The Phillies hit the ball hard — three of the five hardest hits of the night came from Bohm and Vierling — but none of those fell for hits. After the game, Schwarber remarked on how the Phillies’ offense seems to come up short on Nola’s best days.

“The way that he’s been consistently pounding the zone, pounding it early, he’s putting it all together right now,” Schwarber said. “We always joke with him, we’re trying to get him a win today. And I feel like he’s had a couple of starts where he throws up a one or a two or a zero and we just haven’t been able to score for him. We joked about the weird one where he gave up some runs and we were able to sneak one out there for him. He’s doing a fantastic job.”

When left-handed reliever José Alvarado departed for triple-A Lehigh Valley in late May, he was not someone who then-manager Joe Girardi could trust. Since his return on June 12, he’s allowed only two earned runs and four walks in 5⅔ innings pitched, good for a 3.18 ERA for the month of June. As a point of reference, Alvarado had an 11.37 ERA in the month of May and a 4.05 ERA in the month of April.

» READ MORE: How Seranthony Domínguez has made himself into the Phillies’ most reliable reliever

He had a particularly impressive outing Friday night. Facing the heart of the Padres’ lineup, he struck out Jake Cronenworth, Luke Voit, and Hosmer. Of his 15 pitches, 10 were strikes.

“I think it was just getting his confidence back (at Lehigh Valley),” interim manager Rob Thomson said of Alvarado. “He’s got it right now. He’s throwing the ball through the zone. His last three or four outings, he’s been really good, really good. So that’s a good sign.”

Thomson announced after Friday’s game that Connor Brogdon has been placed on the COVID-related IL. Brogdon won’t be available at least for Saturday’s game, so, as a corresponding move, the Phillies will call up Mark Appel. Appel, who has 1.61 ERA through 19 games this season in triple-A Lehigh Valley, will make his big league debut at age 30.