Aaron Nola strikes out 11 Reds as Phillies sweep the four-game series on the eve of Bryce Harper’s return

On a night when the Phillies received some unfortunate pitching news, Aaron Nola gave them his best start of the season — a five-hit complete-game shutout — en route to a 4-0 Phillies win and a four-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.

Earlier that day, the Phillies announced that Zack Wheeler would be placed on the 15-day injured list with right forearm tendinitis. It was the latest blow in a series of pitching injuries that have hit the Phillies over the past several weeks, including the loss of reliever Seranthony Domínguez and starter Zach Eflin to the 15-day injured list and reliever Corey Knebel to the 60-day injured list.

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper will return to the Phillies on Friday vs. Pirates

But Nola was cruising against the Reds as if both he and his team didn’t have a care in the world. The right-handed pitcher went nine innings and allowed just five hits while racking up 11 strikeouts. He threw only 101 pitches, 77 of which were strikes. It was his second nine-inning complete game shutout of his career; his first since April 18, 2021, against St. Louis.

Nola was coming off of a tough outing against the Mets, an experience that he said played into his outing on Thursday. He physically felt good in his previous start, but didn’t make the pitches he needed to when runners got on base, and the Mets took advantage. They scored five earned runs off him in five innings.

He didn’t make the same mistake on Thursday night. In the top of the eighth inning, Nola allowed two singles to Aristides Aquino and Alejo Lopez. But he promptly struck out his next three batters to end the inning. In the top of the ninth inning, he allowed a single to Nick Senzel, struck out the next two batters he faced, and then gave up a double to TJ Friedl. Nola induced a groundout by Aquino to win the game.

“I definitely wanted to get ahead of these guys,” he said. “I know they’re a swinging team. I feel like I did that for the most part.”

Part of the reason Nola was so effective was in his pitch usage. On Aug. 19 against the Mets, he relied primarily on his four-seam fastball and his knuckle curve. On Thursday night, he relied primarily on his knuckle curve and his sinker. Only 20 percent of his pitches were four-seam fastballs (compared to 33 percent on Aug. 19). He also mixed in more changeups and cutters.

“Aaron Nola, I think around the league, is known for his curveball, but tonight he had more than just a curveball,” said catcher Garrett Stubbs. “And I think that’s probably a big reason he got to complete the game. When you have to think about more than one pitch ... I mean, for him, if they’re thinking about his curveball all of the time, you can still throw it because it’s that good. But tonight they had to think about everything. And that makes for kind of a video game back there.”

Interim manager Rob Thomson has preached the importance of not underestimating any team, and Thursday’s outing by Nola was a masterclass in that. The Reds aren’t a tough lineup to face, but Nola remained locked in until the very end, refusing to give them even the slightest chance to build momentum.

The offense, meanwhile, manufactured enough runs to make things comfortable for their starter. Aside from Kyle Schwarber’s mammoth solo home run in the bottom of the third, Edmundo Sosa accounted for the Phillies’ three other RBIs with a sac fly that scored Stubbs in the fifth and a two-RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

With this win, the Phillies are 70-55. On Friday, they start a three game set against the Pirates at home — another series against a team below .500 on which they will have to capitalize.

Schwarber entered Thursday’s game with only one hit over his previous 12 at-bats but showed a promising sign of life in the bottom of the third inning, when he crushed a solo home run 451 feet to center field. It was Schwarber’s first home run since Aug. 5. Schwarber’s home run was the farthest hit by any player at Citizens Bank Park this season and was his second-farthest of the year (he hit one that went 468 feet on April 20 in Colorado).