Phillies 0, Dodgers 0 in only Four Innings

Not really. Sadly.

Aaron Nola was electric, keeping what might be the best lineup in Baseball to one hit in four innings, against seven strikeouts. The one hit was promptly erased on a double-play. Dominance. Only one Dodger got to even a three-ball count.

Unfortunately, the Dodgers’ Max Scherzer was pretty good as well, striking out six against no runs and three hits in his three innings.

Then it rained.

It didn’t rain for very long, but with close to half an inch in an hour, that’s impossible to play in.

So the game stopped, and remained halted for over an hour, after which time, Nola’s night was clearly done.

So the Phillies replaced him with JD Hammer, who allowed a solo homer to Corey Seager. 1-0 LA, which, okay, Seager is really good.

Then the Phils replaced Hammer with Matt Moore, which if this were 2011, would be great. But it’s 2021, and if Moore wasn’t washed away by tonight’s rainstorm, he seems to have been washed away by the passage of time, and now I feel bad, because I’m like six years older than Moore. :|

Anyway, Moore did Moore things, and suddenly it was 4-0 LA. For their part, the Dodgers replaced Scherzer with Alex Vesia, who used to play for the Alaska Goldpanners...

Vesia would go on to earn the win after finishing the fourth and pitching a clean fifth, before giving way to a bunch of guys with made up names.

Knebel (Hallmark movie villain)

Bruihl (Marvel movie villain)

Graterol (As-seen-on-TV at 2AM cheese grater with interchangable multi-function cutting edges for all your grating needs)

Treinen (hockey player)

Greene (finished 6th in Cy young voting in 1993)

But despite being fictional characters, the Dodgers’ relief corps pitched admirably, striking out nine Phils over their five and change innings of work (both teams would combine to strike out seven thousand times, which is a new MLB record).

So, with the loss, the Phils’ win streak comes to an end, and Atlanta won... but we are still in first place. In Game two of this series tomorrow, the Phils will send new arrival Kyle Gibson to the mound against David Price.

Incidentally, shortly after the rain delay began, I asked in our staff chatroom if there was any chance Nola could come back out, to which Ethan replied “No. This game isn’t ending tonight, and if it does, it’ll be like 10:00 Phrozen Time.” Well, Ethan, it’s only 8:44 as I write this, so there.