SAN DIEGO — We saw a four-run lead disappear. We saw stuff happen in a playoff game that never seemed to happen in any of those regular-season games we spent the last six months watching. We saw A.J. Preller’s frenetic work at the trade deadline spring to life in two stunning swings of the bat.
But in Game 2 of this National League Championship Series — Padres 8, Phillies 5, at heavily energized Petco Park, there was one highlight that loomed above them all. It was more than just an at-bat. It was an episode of Modern Baseball Family.
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So where should we begin this episode of the NLCS Weird and Wild extravaganza? With a tale of two brothers. Where else?
1. Band of Brothers
Brothers. They usually grow up in the same house. They ride on the same school bus. They play Wiffle Ball in the same backyard. And …
Once every century or so, they get to bat against each other in a postseason game!
So there they were Wednesday afternoon, in sunshine-baked San Diego. On the mound: Phillies pitching stylist Aaron Nola. At the plate: His big brother, Padres catcher Austin Nola. They’ve done this before. Many times. But a trip to the World Series was never riding on it.
So let’s reflect on the meaning of what we saw in the fifth inning at Petco Park. A big-league player getting a hit off his brother … in a playoff game … on an 0-2 pitch … and driving in a run against his brother that flipped so many scripts:
Changed a game. Turned the NLCS upside-down. Made family memories for a lifetime. Oh, and also — (did we wait too long to get to this part?) — rewrote the history of baseball.
We’ll explain all of that shortly. But let’s first take a step back and just savor how cool that moment was. Not merely in the landscape of October baseball — but in the landscape of stuff that happens to real people in these games — in their very real lives.
“I wish I could have taken a snapshot and just held the moment for like a day, you know, because that’s how fun it is,” Austin Nola said Wednesday after the Padres had tied up the NLCS by basically ruining his brother’s day. “And I’m sure he would say the same thing, that stepping in the box and you get your brother in a situation, you know … just facing him in a big-league game is enough to just hold the moment.
“I was like, I wish I could just press pause on the time button and just live it for much longer than what it lasts, because it happens really quick.”
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Ah, but that game-changing, life-changing at-bat, on the other hand? That one did not happen really quick, not in actual time — as opposed to Nola family time. Let’s relive it now. There was one out in the fifth, and Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim took a lead off first base.
On the mound, Aaron Nola kicked at the dirt and peered in at his brother. His 4-0 lead had been whittled to 4-2. He jumped ahead in the count, 0-2, on a fouled-off cutter, followed by a sizzling four-seamer that Austin swung through helplessly. It was now Austin’s job just to stay in this at-bat and survive as best he could.
He got a piece of a darting two-seamer and fouled it off. It was still 0 and 2. Then Aaron tossed his fourth pickoff throw of the at-bat over to first, just to hold Kim close. It didn’t work. As Aaron stretched and unleashed one of his hardest sinkers of the day, Kim bolted for second. He wouldn’t stop there. And Austin Nola did the rest.
Austin Nola gets the best of his little brother Aaron as he gets a base hit to get the Padres within one.
— The Athletic MLB (@TheAthleticMLB) October 19, 2022
Now let’s review the history that unfolded in that remarkable moment in baseball — and Nola family — time.
This is the 118th postseason in baseball history. Yet before this day, no pitching brother had ever faced a brother with a bat in his hands in any postseason game. So no matter what else happened, people would remember the Nola brothers for the rest of baseball time. And that’s pretty astonishing in and of itself. But …
One brother got a hit off another brother — and drove in a run! And that’s just way too hard to comprehend. It was the first time, obviously, anyone had ever gotten a hit off his brother in a postseason game. It was also the first time, obviously, that anyone had ever driven in a run against his brother in a postseason game. Remember, we’re talking about more than a century of postseason baseball — and then this thing happened that literally nobody had ever seen (or done) before.
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“That’s crazy, that it hasn’t happened ever,” said Padres pitcher Mike Clevinger, after he and his teammates had spent some postgame time yukking it up, watching the video of this brother-versus-brother frivolity. “You’d think that somehow, sometime, it would line up. That is crazy. Crazy. Amazing. That’s just wild. It’s awesome. Romantic. It’s like a storybook. Always.
“And you never know. If it took 100 years for this to happen, you think about how, 100 years from now, that could still be the only time that it happened. That is crazy.”
But even in the regular season, this doesn’t happen much! In September 2021, the Royals’ Kyle Zimmer served up a home run to his brother, Bradley. And hey, the Nola brothers have never done that. Yet.
But just four months ago, on June 24 at Petco, Austin did become the first player in the modern era to drive in the only run of a 1-0 game against his brother. Wow. Before that, no player had driven in any kind of game-winning run in any regular-season game since Phil Niekro homered off his brother Joe … in 1979!
So there is no history quite like brotherly history. But when it unfolds in October, it’s in a category all its own. So because it carved out such a unique niche in postseason lore, it was memorable simply to hear the Nola family reflect on what just happened.
FROM AUSTIN NOLA: “Childhood memories, I think about Wiffle Ball all the time. He’s pitching against me, trying to get me out. And it’s, like, surreal when I step up to the plate, and I’m like, ‘Man, we used to do this all the time. I used to sit there and catch you all the time and play games.’ And we’re like, ‘Whenever you’re in the big leagues, what (pitch) are you going to call right here?’ And now it’s happening. It’s crazy.”
FROM THE NOLAS’ DAD, A.J.: “I can’t even describe how difficult that was. You can just see in all the tweets about how I was just (showing) no emotion. I mean, I’m gonna get kicked in the leg all night by my wife. She’s like, ‘Why didn’t you cheer?’ But I mean, it’s bittersweet. … I’m sad for Aaron. But I’m thrilled for Austin.”
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WEIRD AND WILD TO A.J. NOLA: “As a dad, is there anything comparable to that experience?”
A.J. NOLA: “No. Nothing, because you know, when they faced each other during the season, it was fun. But now, I know what it means. I know what it means to the city of each of their teams. And I know what it means to them. So now it’s a lot harder — a lot harder.”
FROM AARON NOLA, ON WHETHER HE’LL BE ABLE TO TAKE ANY JOY IN THIS DOWN THE ROAD: “No. I want to beat him. I want to go to the next round and let him go home — but it definitely is cool.”
WEIRD AND WILD TO A.J. NOLA: “Are you aware of the history of this? We’ve had brothers oppose each other in the postseason before, but we’ve never had one brother face his brother and get a hit off his brother before in a postseason game.”
A.J. NOLA: “That would be cool if that is true. Oh, it is true? Well, that’s what makes me prouder than anything, is hearing about stuff like that.”
WEIRD AND WILD TO AUSTIN NOLA: “Is it hard to comprehend that 100 years from now, people will still be looking back at what happened today, at this at-bat, because it was the first time ever for two brothers?”
AUSTIN NOLA: “Yeah, well, hopefully, there will be many more at-bats. But I mean, it’s special for sure. Like you said, I’m going to always remember it. I’ll always remember my family being here. I’m sure we’ll talk about this 20 years from now, when we’re all sitting at Christmas time, talking about these moments, right? I mean, that’s what it’s all about.”
"Everything to this point is just so surreal. Worth every penny of it."@Ken_Rosenthal spoke the with A.J. and Stacie Nola as they watch their sons compete in the NLCS ❤️ pic.twitter.com/1JXUxNQjiT
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 19, 2022
2. When four-run leads disappear
Win Game 1. Take a 4-0 lead in Game 2. Hand the baseball to a pitcher who hadn’t given up an earned run in the entire month of October.
That summed up how beautiful life looked for the Phillies in the middle of the second inning Tuesday. What could possibly go wrong?
Hohohohoho. All right, so you know the answer to that question by now. Eight Padres runs — six of them off Aaron Nola — was what could possibly go wrong … and did, in fact, go wrong. But seeing as how this is the Weird and Wild column, you might be interested in knowing what was so Weird and Wild — and nearly unprecedented — about that.
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How many teams have done what the Phillies did? Let’s rephrase that question and ask: How many other teams in postseason history won Game 1 of any series on the road, took a lead of four runs or more in Game 2 and then blew that lead and lost that game? You won’t believe this.
I asked that question of my friends from STATS Perform. And how about this: Only one other true road team in postseason history has ever done that! And … it was another Dave Dombrowski team!
That team was the 2013 Tigers. Beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. Handed Max Scherzer a 5-0 lead in Game 2. Then watched Scherzer and the bullpen give it all back, punctuated by the fabled David Ortiz grand slam off Joaquín Benoit that sent Torii Hunter toppling into the bullpen trying to chase it down. Oof.
The Tigers almost swept that series. They wound up losing it in six games because of stuff like that. But in other news …
If we take out the “road team” part, how many more teams have done that? Excellent question. According to STATS, only three other teams in postseason history have won a Game 1 anywhere, then blown a lead of four-plus runs the next game:
Matt Cain’s 2010 Giants: Raced to a quick 4-0 lead. Then Cain handed it to the bullpen. That didn’t go well. The Braves won 5-4 in 11 innings, but the Giants still won that National League Division Series and, eventually, the World Series.
Cliff Lee’s 2011 Phillies: They handed Lee a 4-0 lead at rocking Citizens Bank Park. He couldn’t hold it. The Cardinals stole Game 2 of that NLDS, 5-4, and won the series in five games.
Adam Wainwright‘s 2020 Cardinals: They were technically “the road team,” but in an empty Petco Park during the pandemic Wild Card Series. Still blew leads of 4-0 and 6-2 to the Padres and lost, 11-9. Also wound up losing that series. But ohbythe way, that was the only time in Padres postseason history they’d ever come from four runs back to win … until Wednesday!
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Have any other Phillies teams ever done that? Well, not exactly that. But besides The Cliff Lee Game, there was also the infamous 15-14 loss to Toronto in Game 4 of the 1993 World Series. The Phillies actually led that one by five runs (12-7) and wound up losing it 15-14. That World Series didn’t end well, either. You can google “Joe Carter” if you need more details.
So what’s the mathematical swing from a game like that? According to the Elias Sports Bureau, true road teams that go up two games to none in a best-of-seven series with this format (2-3-2, away-home-away) pretty much never lose. True road teams (i.e., not counting neutral sites) are 13-0 all-time in the LCS and 23-3 in all best-of-seven series (with the three losses coming in the 1985, 1986 and 1996 World Series). But …
When a team wins Game 1 on the road and then loses Game 2 of a best-of-seven series, that math swings dramatically. Instead of having next to no chance of losing, history says it now has a 61 percent chance of losing. The record of teams that do that all-time, according to Elias: 16-25.
So that was more than a lead that disappeared on the Phillies in Game 2. It was the chance to grip this series, and a trip to the World Series, in the mathematical equivalent of a full nelson. In other words, that wasn’t merely a Weird and Wild way to lose. It was a potential dream-crusher.
3. Hand out that executive of the year trophy!
You know who was kind of busy at the trade deadline this year? Hey, not just Ken Rosenthal — but also A.J. Preller!
What most casual deadline observers recall is the Padres’ president of baseball operations trading for that Juan Soto guy. And yep, that was a big deal. We wrote a few billion words about that one if I recall, and for good reason.
But it turns out that wasn’t all Preller did that day. Who knew! We were reminded of that Wednesday when this game-turning thing happened in the bottom of the second inning.
Back-to-back jacks get the @Padres on the board. 💪💪 pic.twitter.com/tkMP24r621
— MLB (@MLB) October 19, 2022
You’ve just seen Brandon Drury and Josh Bell hit back-to-back home runs that shoved a 4-0 Phillies lead into the slicing machine and carved it in half. But that isn’t even the Weird and Wild part.
The Weird and Wild part is this: The Padres just got back-to-back homers from two guys who weren’t even on their team on Opening Day — because A.J. Preller traded for them at the deadline (getting Drury from the Reds and Bell from Washington as part of the Soto trade). And we mention that because you don’t see that much!
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Oh, and we also mention it because we dropped this knowledge on Bell afterward — and he smiled and deadpanned: “I’m sure A.J. is patting himself on the back right now.” But back to the Weird and Wild part.
Our friends from STATS report that only one other time in history have any two players hit back-to-back postseason homers for one team after starting that season on another team. We’d love to tell you that happened back in, like, 1937, but in truth, you have to go way, way, way back … to last year:
Eddie Rosario … Adam Duvall … Game 4 of last season’s NLCS, for the Braves against the Dodgers.
In other words, this happened never in the first 102 League Championship Series ever played, but now has happened in each of the last two NL Championship Series because … c’mon, you know …
Baseball!
4. Party of Four
Baseball is Weird, you know. But also Wild. And especially postseason baseball, which keeps us all interested by showing no interest in adhering to anything that had ever unfolded before it arrived. And there was so much stuff that veered off the usual script at Petco Park this week, I’m devoting this entire section to sharing that stuff with you. You’re welcome!
Josh Hader — might never have become a Padre if it weren’t for the Phillies — and specifically two Phillies: Alec Bohm and Matt Vierling.
Hader rolled into a June 7 outing against the Phillies having allowed zero runs this year. Then a funny thing happened to that 0.00 ERA: Bohm and Vierling both homered off him in the ninth inning in Milwaukee. That led to a loss, but also kicked off a bizarre stretch in which Hader allowed 15 runs in his next 14 1/3 innings, whereupon the Brewers traded him at the deadline.
So why would I bring that up now? Oh, maybe because Hader faced Bohm and Vierling in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game, too — and struck them out on a combined 10 pitches. Of course he did!
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Aaron Nola — Yep, the Nola family notes just keep on coming. Did you know that of all pitchers in the big leagues who made 30 starts or more this year, no one allowed as few homers on their first trip through the order as Aaron Nola — who served up exactly one of them in 32 regular-season starts.
So what happened Wednesday? On his first trip through the Padres’ order, naturally, that same Aaron Nola gave up two homers on two pitches — to Drury and Bell. Amazing.
Then again, he also gave up six earned runs in this game. Before this, the Phillies rotation had allowed five earned runs in the entire postseason — combined.
Robert Suarez — What a fantastic story this guy has been. You don’t see many 31-year-old rookies who go through a whole season and allow zero runs at home. But that’s what Suarez did for the Padres — in the regular season.
He faced 85 hitters at Petco this season — and allowed no home runs, just one extra-base hit and an absurd .143 slugging percentage. So …
What happened when he stomped in there Wednesday to make his NLCS debut at Petco? He gave up a home run to Rhys Hoskins on the first pitch he threw! Sure. Of course he did.
The magic number is 5 — Well, it is for the Padres, anyway. They charged from behind to put up a five-run seventh inning last weekend in their NLCS clincher against the Dodgers. Then they fired up yet another five-run fifth inning Wednesday in their comeback win against the Phillies.
So what’s so Weird and Wild about that? Here’s what:
This was the 49th postseason game in Padres history. You know how many five-run innings they had in their first 46 postseason games — and 53 seasons — in the life of the franchise? That would be one (back in the 1998 NLCS). And then …
They had two of them in three games! Because, well, whaddaya think …
Baseball!
(Top photo: Kiyoshi Mio / USA Today)