Are the Nolas Rooting for Austin’s Padres or Aaron’s Phillies in the NLCS?

Entering Wednesday, Aaron Nola had thrown 10,188 fastballs in his career, with only nine of them clocked at 95.9 miles an hour or higher. Of those, three came when facing Austin in August of last season.

“I want to beat him,” Aaron said. “I want to go to the next round and let him go home.”

The boys’ parents spent last Saturday celebrating the Phillies’ advancing into the N.L.C.S. in Philadelphia, then returned to their hotel to watch the Padres play the Dodgers. A.J. Nola said it was around 2 a.m. Eastern time when the importance of the Padres’ winning dawned on him.

“I looked at my wife and said to her, ‘One of our kids is going to be in the World Series,” he said.

Fortunately, A.J. owns his own remodel/construction business back home and Stacie does not work, so the Nolas have had the flexibility to chase their sons’ pursuit that has become a family dream.

“He’s probably only worked about three days in the past three weeks,” Stacie said.

And don’t even ask about sleep.

“Terrible,” A.J. said. “Here’s what I’m banking on, one of two scenarios: If the Padres win, I want the Astros to win the American League because we live only about a four-hour drive from Houston.

“If Philadelphia wins, I want the Yankees to win because then the World Series would be just a train ride.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/20/sports/baseball/nola-brothers-nlcs.html