Philadelphia Phillies (51-42) vs. Milwaukee Brewers (52-42)
Game 1 – Phillies win 4-3 behind a stellar Aaron Nola start – W: Nola (9-6, 4.27), L: Teheran (2-4, 4.01), S: Kimbrel (16)
Kyle Schwarber and the offense started this one with a bang. Wasting no time, Schwarber whacked the first pitch he saw the opposite way over the left field fence for his 26th homerun. The offense went ahead and scored one run each of the next two innings off of a Bohm single that followed a Realmuto walk and Stott double and a Castellanos single that brought in Trea Turner who had hit a triple to the center field wall. Nola was cruising through the first four innings, facing the minimum and showcasing his best stuff, however, he hit a snag in the fifth inning. After getting two quick outs, one of which a terrific play by Schwarber up against the fence, he surrendered a single, double, and another single to the six, seven, and eight hole batters to give up two runs. The Phillies answered back in the bottom of the inning with a clutch two out single by Stott to score Turner again and the lead was stretched to two at 4-2 at the end of the 5th. That was enough offense for Aaron Nola and the bullpen. Other than the 5th and 8th innings he had everything working and was keeping the Brewers hitters off-balance with the cutter, sinker, and knuckle curve all being thrown for strikes. Nola handed the ball to Soto after exiting with runners on the corner and one out in the 8th. Soto was able to get out of the inning with two ground balls but one run scored which was credited to Nola. Kimbrel was able to hold the one run lead and convert his 16th save despite two errors in the inning and the Phillies take game one of the series 4-3.