NL WILD CARD SERIES: PHILLIES VS CARDINALS

October 8, 2022

Aaron Nola

Busch Stadium

Philadelphia Phillies

Postgame Press Conference

Cardinals, 0 - Phillies, 2

Q. Aaron, what are your emotions like having clinched on Monday to send the Phillies to the playoffs first time since 2011 and to clinch the first postseason series victory, two clinches in six days?

AARON NOLA: Yeah. Pretty quick turn around, I feel like. But super excited. Everybody in the clubhouse on that team, organization, everybody is super excited. Such a great series that we played here. You know, Tom said it perfect, just a bunch of unselfish guys just to do whatever it takes to win a ballgame, no matter what it is. So a lot of excitement.

Q. Did you prove anything to yourself or prove anything more to yourself with the way you pitched on Monday and tonight?

AARON NOLA: I just wanted to -- obviously knew what the stakes were, but I wanted to stay within myself and not try to do anything I haven't done all year and just pitch my game. And J.T., you know, he's called great games all year long, and especially tonight. And it's a great team win. Bullpen came in and shut the door, scratched some two big runs right there, and huge outs by the bullpen. Ef coming in with two guys on in the ninth and getting that out to seal the deal.

Q. You threw many more curveballs than you have all season to start. Was that part of your game plan going in?

AARON NOLA: I don't know. The game plan kind of changed. It kind of I guess J.T. saw something that was working. Curveball was working early on, and I felt like I kind of was hanging it a little bit after the first few innings, but they were hitting it right to some guys and hit a few right to Bohm. Bohm had an outstanding game in the field. Awesome had Tim behind the dish, worked really well together tonight.

Q. And you have known Seranthony for a while. What was it like coming in in that moment there and Pujols gets on and he goes through two MVP candidates and strikes them out?

AARON NOLA: Man, electric. Really electric. Like you said, I've known him a long time. And he's had some ups and downs and injuries and coming back from Tommy John surgery. Still the same guy with the same stuff, nastiness, and those were some huge outs, really big outs right there. Super happy for him.

Q. Do you hear Harper before the game walking around telling guys on the team that you guys are not going to lose this game or are you too wrapped up in your prep?

AARON NOLA: I heard him. Yeah, I did.

Q. What's he doing, shouting it or just walking around --

AARON NOLA: He was just talking about it. He was just talking about it. I was kind of in and out of the clubhouse doing my thing, but I came in for a few minutes, and I heard him say it. Other than that, I was just trying to focus on what I needed to do.

Q. And in that sixth inning, you had to face Goldschmidt and Arenado and you strike them both out. You had five or six strikeouts tonight were with men on base. When you see those two guys coming up, how do you kind of just keep it all cool because those are two of the most dangerous hitters in baseball?

AARON NOLA: Execute and execute. That's my main thing with those guys coming up with the whole lineup. Execute my pitches, get ahead of them as best as I could and try to expand after that. But they put together a couple good at-bats against me, but we got out of them.

Q. And you've been here a long time and you went through a lot of tough seasons team wise, and now you're going to get a first time back in the playoffs in a decade and you're going to get a home playoff game. How big is that for the team, the group of guys in that clubhouse, and even beyond that, maybe for the franchise?

AARON NOLA: Oh, it's huge, huge. It's really big for our team, obviously, for the organization, for the fanbase. It's been a while since we've had a playoff game back at home. Can't wait. Can't wait. But first off, we gotta take care of business going into Atlanta. That's a good team. We've played them a lot. We know each other really well. So the atmosphere is going to be electric, of course, and definitely look forward to it.

Q. Congratulations. You've got 40,000 people in the stadium and they're all thinking about one thing and that's Albert and Yadi and keeping their career going. You can't think about that, but does any part of you now appreciate that you were part of finishing their careers at all? Do you allow yourself to sort of understand like the historical nature of the other side of this?

AARON NOLA: I mean, those guys' careers were unbelievable, what they did for the game, what they did for that organization. Obviously grew up watching them, grew up watching them all the time and all the great years they had. And to face them is pretty cool. Right? Faced Albert in 2017 for the first time. And pretty star-struck moment, to be honest with you. Obviously knew his record, you know, and what he did for the game. But at the end of the day, they're another hitter that we're trying to get out, and that's all that mattered.

Q. We were just talking about how you guys know the Braves so well. How do you think familiarity kind of plays a role in this series?

AARON NOLA: I mean, gotta do the little things right. You know, we've played a lot of games against them, and I've pitched a lot of games against them. So have a few other of our pitchers as well.

For pitching staff, it comes down to executing is the main thing and trying to get that lead off guy out. They can hit. They hit for average, hit for power. They run the bases well. So I mean, do a lot of things well, but we also do a lot of things well as well. And we're definitely looking forward to that series.

Q. You mentioned Bohm real quick. What has it been like to watch where he was in April to where he was today and the plays that he made and the confidence that he has?

AARON NOLA: It's pretty cool to see where he's come and how far he's come. I could just tell in the field how much more confident he is. I mean, the guy makes a lot of plays now. And I could just tell, his demeanor, his demeanor at the plate, you know, in the clubhouse, in the dugout, it's pretty cool, and it shows. And like you said, he had an awesome night tonight, big night and made some great plays behind me, too.