Miami Marlins at Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies went outside of the organization on Wednesday for some pitching help in former All-Star left-hander Nestor Cortes. However, surging stalwart Aaron Nola showed later in the day that Philadelphia might already have their much-needed rotation piece. Nola struck out eight in seven strong innings to help the Phillies complete a three-game home sweep of the Marlins with a 4-1 victory at Citizens Bank Park. Philadelphia pushed its winning streak to a season-best six consecutive contests while reaching 12 games over .500 for the first time this season. And Nola was a huge reason why. The 33-year-old right-hander lowered his ERA to 2.51 in his last five starts while once again featuring a lights-out knuckle curve. After matching his season-best with nine strikeouts, eight of which came on a knuckle curve, in his last start on Aug. 13 at the Field of Dreams, Nola fanned seven Marlins with the knuckle curve. “Lately, I’ve been feeling pretty good, body and arm, arsenal’s been feeling pretty good,” Nola said. “Hopefully, I can keep it up.” Nola has 34 strikeouts in 28 2/3 innings over his recent hot stretch, and is looking more and more like the dominant, durable pitcher he became known to be across his 12-year Major League career. “Just all my pitches, how they feel, and winning the counts and not walking guys,” Nola said of the keys to his recent success. “Gotta keep trying to keep the ball down and in the ballpark.” Nola, whom Philadelphia picked No. 7 overall in 2014, also tied Cole Hamels for sixth place on the club’s all-time wins list with career victory No. 114. Most importantly, he is starting to show the Phillies that he can be a dependable arm down the stretch, along with the big three of Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Luzardo.