Phillies lose game 2 to the Padres 8-5, as Nola struggles

SAN DIEGO - As the great Rocky Balboa once said “Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows”, and the Phillies got a taste of that reality today.

To this point in the playoffs, the Phillies have not dealt with all too much controversy, steamrolling the Cardinals in the Wildcard, then dismantling the 101-win Braves in the NLDS.

The Phils record in the fall classic stood at 6-1 before today’s ugly loss…

I say ugly because that is exactly what it was, after jumping out to an early 4-0 lead Aaron Nola would implode allowing a combined 7 runs over the next 4 innings. From that point on it would be all Friars as the Phillies offense went quiet.

Before tonight Aaron Nola was on a role, he hadn’t allowed an earned run since September 28th, and hadn’t failed to go more than 6 innings since August 30th (not including rain delays). It was obvious that Noles just did not have his stuff working tonight. He was nevertheless able to go 3 scoreless innings, and for a time it looked like he may begin to settle in. Games like these do happen and we know all too well that Aaron is no exception to stinkers like today.

This loss may begin to feel worse to fans than it actually is considering how well the Phillies have performed. However teams do suffer losses in the postseason, and it is not the end of the world. But when you begin to lose games in such facets as the Phillies did this afternoon, then things can begin to become worrisome.

Sudden losses in momentum like the Phillies suffered today have proven to stop red-hot teams in their tracks in the past. Now don’t get me wrong, I still do have complete confidence in this squad, they have shown us all too much for me to give up on them now. All I am saying is that the Phils need to keep their heads high and remember why their here. They are headed home and will soon be playing in front of 50,000 Phillies faithful in what is the perfect opportunity to suck the life out of this Padres team. But for now, wherever you are, good morning, good afternoon, and good night, but of course Go Phils!