PHILADELPHIA — A pitcher with a hot hand can warm up a team deep into the coldest months of the baseball season.
With the weather starting to chill, Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola and Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly look to maintain their sizzling starts to the postseason when they match up Tuesday night with the Phillies holding a 1-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.
Philadelphia won the opener 5-3 on Monday.
“There are times throughout the year that you can’t figure it out … hopefully you hit that lightning in a bottle when it counts at this time of the year,” said Kelly, who hopes to help his team even the series on the road before heading back to Phoenix.
Kelly (1-0, 0.00 ERA in the postseason) allowed two or fewer runs in five of his six September starts. The 35-year-old veteran then threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the NL Division Series, his first career postseason start. Kelly allowed three hits and two walks while striking out five en route to an 11-2 win.
The starting pitchers were the difference Monday as the Phillies got to Diamondbacks ace Zac Gallen, who allowed five runs in five innings, with first-inning homers from Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Nick Castellanos added another long ball in the second, and the Phillies were up 5-0 through five.
It will be Kelly’s job to quiet the Phillies’ lineup — along with a rowdy Philadelphia crowd.
“I would say try to treat it just like we’ve treated every other game in the playoffs so far,” Kelly said. “Obviously not make the situation bigger than it already is, keep playing our game, keep doing what we do well, not try to go outside our box too much.”
Nola (2-0, 1.42 ERA in the postseason) would like to follow a brilliant performance on Monday night by teammate Zack Wheeler, who gave up three hits and two runs (on a two-run, sixth-inning homer by Geraldo Perdomo) in six innings. Wheeler retired 15 straight hitters after Corbin Carroll opened the game with a broken-bat single.
After an up-and-down regular season, Nola finished with two quality starts before winning each of his two playoff starts to date. He fired seven shutout innings against the Miami Marlins in Game 2 of the wild-card round, then slowed a potent Atlanta Braves lineup (5.2 innings, six hits, two runs, one walk, nine strikeouts) in Game 3 of the NLDS.
He can help put the Phillies up 2-0, a lead they didn’t attain in last year’s NLDS, NLCS or World Series and this year’s NLDS despite winning Game 1 in all four series.
“You like being on that stage,” Nola said. “It’s what we train for and prepare our minds for because you have to go back and think about what you have done and what makes you good and what you’ve had success with.”
The game-time temperature should be around the 50s once again Tuesday night, but the weather likely won’t keep either pitcher from staying warm.
“I think once those lights turn on and that crowd that you are speaking of filters into the stadium, I think the blood is going to warm up pretty quick,” Kelly said. “That postseason adrenaline hits a little bit differently than it does the regular season.”
–Owen McCue, Field Level Media