What’s not entirely clear: Phillies 12, Pirates 6

This is not the way to do it. You are not supposed to fall into a big hole before coming back for a huge win. But it apparently became the Phillies’ thing. For the third time this month – and the second time this week – the Phillies overcame an early six-point hole to come out victorious. On Thursday, despite a poor start from Aaron Nola, the offense managed to bring the team back and claim a 12-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It was the second time this month that Aaron Nola has put the team in a 0-6 hole, only for offense to bring them back. I don’t know why Nola is being brutalized seems to trigger the offensive. To be honest, I don’t want to know that, because I wish it would stop.

In the second round, Nola played the “hits:”

He loaded up the bases on two singles and one walk, but with two outs he had opposing pitcher Connor Overton at home. Overton came into the game with zero career hits, so when the tally went 0-2 it should have been.

The next pitch hit left field, and Andrew McCutchen should have played it, but he looked just as shocked as the rest of us that Nola is giving Overton a throw even from a distance.

Nola could have minimized the damage by getting the next hitter. Instead, he did this:

He gave up another home run the next set, and according to my Twitter feed, most of the fans had given up on the game (and the season). But they forgot two important things: The Phillies have a knack for winning games like this, and the Pirates are a very bad team.

Didi Gregorius’ first home run kicked off a five-run third inning that saw the Phillies come back immediately. In the sixth, Ronald Torreyes put them in front:

JT Realmuto added to the lead with a two-run homer in the seventh and a single RBI in the eighth. All of a sudden Realmuto is hot and made the teams pay to pitch around Bryce Harper.

To her credit, Nola managed to bounce back from that terrible start. It lasted six innings, giving the overworked pen a slight break. He even deserved a victory for his effort!

Combined with the loss to the Braves earlier today, the Phillies are now two games away from the top of the division. The Braves have a double-scheduled Friday, so the Phillies could potentially win a game and a half in the standings. Normally I would say it would be advantageous if Friday starter Kyle Gibson didn’t put them in a first hole, but based on how this month has gone I’m not entirely sure if this is true.