Aaron Nola suffers injury scare in Phillies' 7-5 loss to Blue Jays in extras

Lochlahn March, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Aug 8, 2026

Published in Baseball

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Aaron Nola and Max Scherzer have had many battles over the years.

Saturday night marked the seventh time the two pitchers have faced head-to-head. Scherzer, 42, has been limited this year with the Toronto Blue Jays due injuries and entered the game with a 7.92 ERA. He’s on a one-year deal; it’s fair to wonder if their seventh meeting could also be their last.

It was fitting then, that in Saturday’s 7-5 extra-innings Phillies loss, they each made history. The game was momentarily paused in the second inning to celebrate the Phillies right-hander after he struck out Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela looking on a sinker.

Nola’s third strikeout of the game also happened to be the 2,000th of his career, making him the 94th pitcher in baseball history to reach the milestone. He accomplished it in his 308th start, the 10th-fastest in baseball history.

Not to be outdone, Scherzer’s called strikeout of Kyle Schwarber in the sixth inning was his 3,516th career strikeout, which moved him into 10th all-time in MLB history.

Nola wasn’t able to leave the game on a high note, however. He was removed in the sixth inning with a bruised right knee after Jesús Sánchez hit him with a 104.8 mph comebacker. X-rays were negative, but the right-hander will be evaluated further.

The Phillies had plenty of opportunities to back Nola’s milestone with a win. But Nathan Lukes’ two-out, two-run homer in the 11th proved to be the death blow.

Nola exited at 97 pitches and was nearing the end of his outing. He had allowed two runs on six hits, and had struck out eight. The Phillies were trailing, 2-0, after failing to provide him any run support.

It marks the second time this week a Phillies pitcher has left the game due to injury. Andrew Painter departed with hamstring tightness on Wednesday, although he remains on track to make his next start.

The first two times through the order, the Phillies offense made Scherzer look like his vintage self. For five innings, he held them off the scoreboard while they mustered just three singles.

But the third time through the order was different. Back-to-back homers from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper brought the crowd right back into it and abruptly ended Scherzer’s night. When Blue Jays reliever Spencer Miles took the mound, hits started to become contagious.

Luis Arraez singled, advanced to third on a Bryson Stott double, and scored on a sacrifice fly from Brandon Marsh, dodging the tag at the plate.

Then, Justin Crawford came inches away from homering into the Phillies’ bullpen in center field. It bounced off the wall instead, and Crawford settled for an RBI triple after flying around the bases to give the Phillies a 4-2 lead.

In the eighth inning, José Alvarado coughed up the lead. His command was erratic — at times completely wild — and walked two but was on the verge of escaping it. Free-swinging Andrés Giménez had fallen behind 0-2 chasing two pitches outside of the zone.

But then, Alvarado left a sinker right down the middle for Giménez to punch a game-tying double to center.

Interim manager Don Mattingly called on Brooks Raley, Jonathan Bowlan and Jhoan Duran to pitch an inning each in relief. Orion Kerkering took over from Alvarado in the eighth and faced one batter. That left Chase Shugart for extra innings.

With the ghost runner on second, Shugart walked Davis Schneider on five pitches in the 10th inning. He induced a soft grounder from Ernie Clement to first, but a mental lapse from Alec Bohm — who had entered as a defensive replacement for Schwarber when the Phillies were leading — at first base allowed him to reach. Bohm hesitated before tossing the ball to Shugart, and Clement beat the throw.

It loaded the bases for Giménez, who scored a run on a sacrifice fly. The Phillies tied it again in the bottom of the inning, on their own sacrifice fly, but couldn’t push across the go-ahead run.

Shugart had Lukes down to two strikes in the 11th before he left a sweeper belt-high for the Toronto right fielder. The Phillies went down in order in the bottom of the inning, sealing the series loss.