Aaron Nola delivered the kind of October audition Philadelphia needed. He allowed three hits over seven scoreless innings and struck out four as the Phillies beat the Mets 3-0 Thursday night at Citi Field.
Philadelphia broke through with a run in the third, added another on Luis Arraez's sacrifice fly in the seventh and created the final margin with Justin Crawford's sacrifice fly in the eighth. Jhoan Duran finished the shutout with the save.
Nola's outing mattered beyond one road win. The right-hander entered the night 8-15 with a 6.02 ERA across 34 starts since the beginning of 2025, but Thursday lowered his ERA to 1.86 across his last eight starts. The Phillies moved level with the Cubs for the National League's No. 2 playoff position.
New York managed four hits and could not turn its traffic into a run. Philadelphia now carries a rotation question with a much better answer than it had a month ago.
