Padres Offense Impresses MLB Twitter in NLCS Game 2 Win vs. Aaron Nola, Phillies
Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacek
Featured Columnist IVOctober 20, 2022
Most offenses would have been in serious trouble facing Aaron Nola with a 4-0 deficit after losing Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at home.
Turns out, most offenses aren't the San Diego Padres.
San Diego used a five-run fifth inning to power an 8-5 comeback win over the Philadelphia Phillies in Wednesday's Game 2 of the NLCS. The offensive explosion salvaged a split in the first two games at Petco Park and prevented the Phillies from seizing firm control of the series as it shifts to Philadelphia.
Nola entered the contest after throwing a combined 19.1 shutout innings in his previous three starts, but the Padres chased him from the game in that decisive fifth inning. The right-hander finished with a stat line of six earned runs, seven hits and six strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
San Diego's ability to get to the ace at a critical time generated plenty of reaction on social media:
It seemed like the Padres were done when Blake Snell allowed four earned runs in the second inning off an RBI single by Alec Bohm, RBI double by Matt Vierling, RBI single by Edmundo Sosa and RBI groundout by Kyle Schwarber. It wasn't all Snell's fault, as Juan Soto lost the ball in the sun on Vierling's hit, but the end result was a significant deficit.
Rather than folding, the home team chipped away with back-to-back solo homers from Brandon Drury and Josh Bell in the bottom half of that frame to set the stage for the fifth-inning comeback.
Austin Nola's RBI single off his brother and Soto's RBI double led to an early exit for Philadelphia's Nola, and Drury's two-RBI single off Brad Hand gave San Diego the lead for good.
Manny Machado provided the exclamation mark with a solo homer in the seventh, and the bullpen combination of Nick Martinez, Robert Suarez and Josh Hader allowed just a single run to secure the win.
The one silver lining for the Phillies is they have home-field advantage after splitting the first two on the road, and that advantage will be put to the test in Game 3 on Friday.