San Diego Padres' catcher Austin Nola became the first player in Major League Baseball's postseason history to record a hit off his younger brother, Aaron Nola, the Phillies ace pitcher.
In the fifth inning of the second game of the National League Championship Series, Austin lined a single from his brother Aaron's pitch into right field which allowed Padres' second baseman Ha Ha-Seong Kim to score the first of five runs. The Padres won the game 8 to 5, which has them tied 1-1 with the Phillies in the best of seven game series.
San Diego Sports 760’s Marty Caswell talked with Austin Nola in the locker room following the game.
When the TV cameras caught your father, I think he had a stoic, ‘What do I do?" expression on his face…
“That’s the way it should be, right? I mean what do you do? I don’t know what you do when that happens, I’ve never been in that situation. I love my parents. They handled it so well, because this is hard on parents, right? I’m proud of them for what they’ve had to go through and how they’ve handled all of this."
How does it feel to get a hit off your brother in the NLCS when the stakes are so higher than the regular season?
“Yeah, I mean it feels good, but it’s also…there was a point in time where it was just like, I’m just gonna do whatever I can to get on base. It didn’t really matter that he was pitching, I was going to do that with anyone. But yeah, it’s fun moments. I have a lot of fun with it, I know he has a lot of fun with it.
It’s the lasting memories that you’ll have whenever you’re done playing to get the opportunity to play your brother in the NLCS. It’s so much fun. You never want it to end.”