Phillies complete improbable sweep of Cubs

There was no Cole Hamels hangover in Chicago Sunday afternoon.

Less than 24 hours after Hamels was mobbed by teammates on the Wrigley Field mound following his no-hitter, the Phillies lifted Aaron Nola to his first MLB victory in an 11-5 win.

“It’spretty awesome to get my first win at Wrigley Field,” Nola told radio listeners following the game,”aplace Igrew upwatching my favorite pitchers.”

After the Phillies’ offense and its futility overshadowed Nola’s debut in a 1-0 setback last week, the unit overshadowed the hurler again slapping 17 hits, three of them triples, to complete a surprising three-game sweep of the playoff-hopeful Cubs.

Not only that, but the Phillies have now improved to 8-1 since the All Star break, the best mark in baseball. It’s been quite a memorable week for the recent call up Nola.

“Yesterday I was pumped to be part of that,” Nola said.”Itcouldn’t have happened to a better guy. I grew upwatching him also.”

With three runs in the top of the first, Nola relented two to make it a 3-2 game again. But not long after, the Phillies racked up six unanswered runs.

The rookie would toss seven and two third strong frames against Chicago, striking out six while allowing four runs.

The Cubs struck for two runs after the Phillies upped their lead to 11-2 on Ryan Howard’s 18th homer in the eighth and one more in the ninth. Cubs catcher David Ross pitched a scoreless ninth inning before hitting his first homer of the year in yet another bizarre “only in baseball” moment toward the end of this memorable series.

Also contributing offensively were Odubel Herrera and Domonic Brown, each netting three hits apiece.

Cesar Hernandez, Maikel Franco and Ryan Howard also had multi-hit games with Franco knocking in three runs (Brown also had three RBI).

The Phils hope they don’t cool off during Monday’s off day before the team heads north of the border to face the Blue Jays for a quick two-game set Tuesday and Wednesday.