18 Philadelphia Phillies (Nola) @ Washington Nationals (Scherzer)

HopeSpringsEternal 2018-08-23 19:52:26 UTC #81

That was fun! Two great pitchers, great game.

Lawman 2018-08-23 19:58:10 UTC #82

Philsmania 2018-08-23 20:01:59 UTC #83

The Almighty bless Aaron Nola!

Patchmk88 2018-08-23 20:05:18 UTC #84

Nice to come on and see a win. Nola’s stat line looks fantastic. Now the goal has to be to win series from here on out.

el-pietro 2018-08-23 20:10:09 UTC #85

If every player was a free agent, Aaron Nola would be one of the very first pitchers selected. Maybe DeGrom is ahead of him but not many more. Scherzer, Verlander etc are older so less valuable long term. Nola is a true Ace, Cy Young and MVP candidate. He should be in the top 3 of both those awards this year along with DeGrom and Scherzer and he could win both.

zambonir 2018-08-23 20:16:43 UTC #86

Too bad to lose Bour for Toronto. Maybe Ramos can DH one day. Obviously a chance to use Quinn more too (DH Hoskins or DH Santana and play Hoskins at 1B).

flyers19rw 2018-08-23 20:19:39 UTC #87

That's a big nail into the coffin of the Nats season. They need to win every game that Scherzer pitches. They're down at least seven games tonight pending. It would be nice to play them later on when they're finally totally cooked.

andyb 2018-08-23 20:30:09 UTC #88

I think we get a LHP Friday (Borucki) so Bour probably would have started only the Saturday or Sunday games.

Ramos should be in the lineup for all 3 games. Of course we hope he can catch a couple of them. Assume they rotate the DH. One for Ramos, one for Hoskins maybe, potentially one for Cabrera (getting Quinn a couple of starts in the field and Kingery at least one. That might be Friday with Arrieta on the mound (Kingery SS, Ramos C, Cabrera or Franco DH).

zambonir 2018-08-23 20:56:23 UTC #89

Agree Cabrera should DH once. But we'll see on Ramos. Bigger concern, Bour could be out for weeks.

EastFallowfield 2018-08-23 21:09:44 UTC #90

Had 'em all the way, Harry!

andyb 2018-08-23 21:14:45 UTC #91

At least Bour could be strictly a pinch hitter when he came back with the expanded roster. That might help him get on the field a bit sooner if he only had to hit (and could have a pinch runner since we'll have a deep roster). If Florimon and Crawford are on the roster we really have 4 decent pinch running options in addition to Kingery and Quinn. Maybe even Altherr though I am wondering if he stays down through the playoffs.

zambonir 2018-08-23 21:47:03 UTC #92

Maybe, but I think hitting probably stresses the oblique (twisting motion) more than fielding (other than the lesser amount of time actually using your body).

It's August 23, I think we'd be lucky to get him back for real before the last two weeks of the season.

donaldorc 2018-08-24 01:05:32 UTC #93

I remember people arguing that Nola isn't an ace. Are there still distractors out there?

flyers19rw 2018-08-24 01:15:38 UTC #94

This off season is the time to lock up Nola long term.

Florida_Sunshine 2018-08-24 01:15:55 UTC #95

Early on when he was drafted, I seem to think we thought he could make it to the show fairly quickly but had a ceiling as a 2. Then he had issues and had to be shut down and that was off the board. Clearly now, he is an Ace. An article on philly.com explored the possibility that Nola might be having the best season ever for a Phillies pitcher.

EastFallowfield 2018-08-24 01:20:38 UTC #96

The Mets folks love to talk about what a bandbox CBP is without consideration of what a pitchers park their home park is. Nola might lead the league in ERA if his home field was like that.

nycphils 2018-08-24 01:30:57 UTC #97

Might lead the league in ERA anyway