When the Phillies and Houston Astros squared off on Tuesday night, the starting pitching matchup was a rematch of game one of the 2022 World Series. Neither Aaron Nola nor Justin Verlander pitched well in that World Series game, and on Tuesday, one of them fared poorly once again. Fortunately for the Phillies, that pitcher was not Aaron Nola. Instead, Nola pitched seven shutout innings to lead the Phillies to a 5-0 win.

Nola’s night didn’t get off to a good start, when he gave up a single to Jose Altuve on the first pitch. But that was not predictive of how the rest of the game would go. He retired the next eight batters and breezed through the first four innings.

The Phillies threatened to give Nola some early run support when they had two men on with one out in the first inning. But the recent trend of double plays continued when Alec Bohm hit a ground ball to second base that accounted for the final two outs of the inning.

The Phillies broke through against Verlander in the third. Austin Hays led off with a double, and Trea Turner singled him home to put the Phillies up 1-0. After Bryce Harper singled and Bohm struck out, Nick Castellanos upped the lead to 4-0 with a shot into the left field stands.

The fifth started ominously for Nola when the first two batters reached on singles. It is not unheard of for a strong Nola start to unravel in the middle innings, but instead of spiraling, Nola retired the next nine batters he faced.