PHILADELPHIA — Aaron Nola will start for the Philadelphia Phillies in the deciding Game 3 of their National League Wild Card Series against the Atlanta Braves. As of just before nine o'clock on Wednesday night the decision had been held close to the vest and not yet officially announced, with the club indicating Nola would pitch in some capacity, either as starter or in relief. An update later confirmed he will get the start.
The assignment comes despite some unease around his profile. Nola posted a very solid 3.33 ERA in the second half of the season, but he remains not long removed from a stretch in which he was utterly out of sorts and has been tremendously homer-prone even during the late-season surge. In the postseason, where a single moonshot can end a season, that vulnerability makes his presence a source of nervousness.
Yet symbolically, the source argues, nobody is more suited to this moment. Bryce Harper is the team's biggest star and the player most associated with the city, while Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sánchez are the aces, but Nola is the longest-tenured member of the team. His career overlapped, if only just, with Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels, making him a bridge between eras, present at the start of this current core whether dated to Harper's signing, the 2022 pennant, or Trea Turner's arrival.
That seniority is only part of the fit. The 2026 Phillies have been erratic, magnificent and maddening in short bursts, looking unbeatable one moment and utterly vincible the next. Nola mirrors that variance. At his best he pitches like a star, dicing with his knuckle curve, at his worst he looks lost and baffled. Whether he dominates Atlanta hitters with a solo shot mixed in or gets knocked around, the outcome will be fitting for a team and a pitcher defined by brilliant leaps and sudden faceplants.