Austin Nola achieves MLB first against brother Aaron
Austin Nola “runs his mouth a lot” and had cause to after winning the decisive battle with brother and Phillies pitcher Aaron at Petco Park.
Austin and Aaron Nola made MLB history on Friday – much to the frustration of the Philadelphia Phillies pitcher. The two brothers faced one another for only the second time in their major league careers as the Phillies visited the San Diego Padres’ Petco Park.
The first meeting, in 2021, had gone the way of Phillies right-hander Aaron, as three fastballs saw Austin struck out swinging despite a 4-3 Padres win. Given the baseball Aaron threw for strike three made its way to Austin for Christmas, revenge could well have been on the agenda this time. And Austin delivered and then some...
Another Padres win was settled in the battle between the Nola brothers, as Austin drove in the RBI for the only run in a 1-0 victory. It was the first ever example of a major league player having an RBI off his brother in a 1-0 win. “Of all the people... do it to somebody else,” Aaron said afterwards, knowing he was in store for a tough evening. He’ll talk about it obviously. It is what it is. Yeah, I’ll hear about it tonight. He runs his mouth a lot.”
The Phillies had plenty of opportunities to rescue their pitcher, with Kyle Schwarber finally flying out with bases loaded in the ninth. “I’m beating myself up about that one,” Schwarber said. “I can’t believe I let his brother beat him. Gosh.”
At least in front of the media, Austin was magnanimous in victory, saying: “I’m glad we got the win, but then your brother gets the loss. He pitched an unbelievable game. It’s fun to watch him. There’s no doubt about it. He’s done it twice to us. He threw seven innings, threw eight innings last year. What a performance by him.”