Phillies Ace On Mound to Secure Consecutive Postseason Appearance

The Philadelphia Phillies are throwing their ace on Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates with the opportunity to lock up consecutive postseason appearances.

The Philadelphia Phillies begin a series with their intrastate opponent Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday.

It's a big game as they have a chance to clinch their second consecutive postseason appearance for the first time since they made five straight from 2007-2011.

Their ace Aaron Nola will be on the mound with the opportunity to ensure he gets the club that drafted him into the MLB Playoffs.

While it's almost a formality that the Phillies will get into the postseason at some point during their remaining six games, the sooner they earn their spot the better so manager Rob Thomson can start resting some of their everyday players.

It's also a big opportunity for Nola to treat this game like it's a playoff start.

He's struggled during the 2023 campaign, posting a record of 12-9 with a 4.57 ERA.

But Philadelphia knows what he's capable of doing.

Having a good start in this contest would go a long way to provide confidence that he can return to being the ace he's been throughout his career.

Unfortunately, that hasn't been the case so far during the final regular season stretch.

He has his highest ERA of the season this month, excluding March where he made one start.

Coming into Tuesday, Nola has an 0-1 record with a 6.86 ERA across his four games in September.

There is hope that he could be turning the corner, however, as he's coming off a game against the Atlanta Braves where he allowed two earned runs on six hits, while striking out eight batters.

That could be the outing that gets him back on track.

He has a chance to show that he can return to his ace form and clinch Philadelphia's MLB Playoffs spot on Tuesday facing a Pirates team he should dominate.