SAN DIEGO (AP) — Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies had been rolling this postseason. The right-hander was given a big lead against the San Diego Padres but let them right back in the NL Championship Series.
His older brother, Padres catcher Austin Nola, was right in the middle of it, too.
Aaron Nola made his postseason debut this year and went 2-0 without allowing an earned run in 12 2/3 innings as Philadelphia swept the NL wild-card round against St. Louis and upset defending World Series champion Atlanta in the Division Series.
The surprising Phillies came to San Diego and blanked the Padres 2-0 in the NLCS opener behind starter Zack Wheeler and home runs from sluggers Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber.
But then Aaron Nola and his teammates squandered an excellent chance to go home leading 2-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Cruising with a 4-0 lead, Nola gave up back-to-back solo homers to Brandon Drury and Josh Bell in the second inning.
San Diego wasn’t done, either. The Padres scored four runs off Nola in a five-run fifth to take a 7-4 lead and never let up on their way to an 8-5 victory that tied the series 1-all.
Adding insult to injury was Austin Nola. After Aaron retired him on a grounder in the second, Austin singled home a run in the fifth that drew the Padres to 4-3.
Jurickson Profar followed with a single and Juan Soto doubled. Aaron Nola got pulled after striking out Manny Machado, one of his six punch-outs in the game.
He gave up six runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings, taking the loss.
The Nola brothers became the first siblings to face each other as pitcher and hitter in the postseason, and just the sixth set of brothers to play against each other in the playoffs.
Aaron had made 203 starts — most ever by a Phillies pitcher whose entire career has been with the team — before making his postseason debut earlier this month against the Cardinals.
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