Nola (1 H, 9 K's) has Phils' rotation peaking

PHILADELPHIA -- Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola lined up to pitch the first two games of last fall's National League Wild Card Series in St. Louis.

They pitched well. The Phillies won.

So, yes, if they earn another NL Wild Card berth next month, they would love to line up their rotation exactly the same way.

“If we can do it that way, yeah. If it were today, I’d say, yeah, that’s right,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said following Sunday afternoon’s 3-0 victory over the Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park.

Less than 24 hours after Wheeler pitched a gem in Saturday's victory, Nola followed with a thoroughly dominant performance on Sunday. Their efforts helped the Phillies sweep their first regular-season series against St. Louis since August 2006 and maintain a three-game lead over the Cubs and a 3 1/2-game lead over the D-backs for the No. 1 NL Wild Card spot with 32 games to play.

“The way that those two threw the ball recently, it’s great,” left fielder Kyle Schwarber said. “It’s like classic Wheeler-Nola.”

Nola allowed one hit and one walk in seven scoreless innings on Sunday. He struck out nine, tying Curt Schilling for fifth place in Phillies history with 1,554 strikeouts.

Nola allowed a leadoff double to Cardinals shortstop Tommy Edman in the first inning, then retired the next 13 batters until he walked Nolan Gorman with one out in the fifth. Nola then retired the final eight batters he faced.

“After Edman hit that double, I really felt like I had to get in the zone,” Nola said. “Those were three uncompetitive pitches, so I really wanted to focus on getting ahead in the count. I feel like, for the most part, I did.”

It was Nola’s second consecutive solid start -- eight hits, two runs, two walks and 14 strikeouts over 14 combined innings -- following a season of ups and downs. Perhaps the last two starts are a sign that he is finding his groove with the postseason just around the corner.

“I hope so,” Nola said. “I feel good, the body feels really good -- all physically and mentally. Hopefully I keep it going. I’m just going to have a good work week this week and stay healthy in September. … I’m getting ahead. I’m throwing better pitches. The defense played really good behind me. I’m going deeper in the game, [getting] early outs.”

Thomson said he thought Nola had his best curveball of the season, which is saying something. Entering Sunday, Nola had gotten 714 of his 1,542 tracked strikeouts (46.3%) on curveballs, which is second in baseball since the beginning of 2015. Only Atlanta's Charlie Morton (785) has more.

But Nola got a career-high seven strikeouts with his four-seam fastball on Sunday. He got only two on curveballs.

“I think when I’m on top of the four-seam, it’s got a little bit of life to it,” Nola said. “I think it helps my curveball.”

“I never enjoyed facing Noles when I was an opposing player,” Schwarber said. “It’s a plus curveball, but the fastball, too, is plus. Just because of the different types of movement that he can get with it. He can get a lot of run [with the two-seam], but he can also have a lot of ride with the four-seam. They're completely different pitches. When you’ve got three plus ones, it’s tough as a hitter.”

Schwarber hit a leadoff homer in the first inning. It was the 27th leadoff homer of his career, his 14th with the Phillies and his seventh this season. Schwarber is batting .274 with nine homers, 19 RBIs and a 1.197 OPS in his past 18 games.

The Phillies have hit a franchise record 49 homers this month. It's a big reason why they are 15-9 (.625) in August. But the pitching has helped, too. The Phillies struck out 34 batters in the sweep of the Cardinals. They walked only three.

Quite a few pitchers are throwing well, but for the Phils to go far this October, they need Wheeler and Nola throwing well at the top.

Lately, they have been doing just that.