PHILADELPHIA — Aaron Nola will start Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium for the Phillies, who need a win to stave off elimination.

Manager Rob Thomson announced the decision after a 4-3 loss in Game 2 Monday. While Nola will start, Ranger Suarez is expected to play a big role after the Phillies didn’t use him in either of the first two losses to the Dodgers.

Comfort with the role seems to be the main decider.

“Nola has never pitched out of the ’pen,” Thomson said. “How long he goes, I don’t know. But I trust him.”

Nola went 5-10 with a 6.01 ERA in 17 starts and 94.1 innings. He went on the IL in May with an ankle injury that turned into a rib fracture. Since returning Aug. 17, he was 4-3 with a 5.84 ERA in eight starts. He threw eight innings in his last outing against Minnesota, allowing two hits and one run.

Nola has a 4.02 ERA in 10 career postseason appearances with the Phillies. He got the loss in Game 3 of the NLDS last year in New York, allowing four earned runs in five innings. In his last three road playoff starts – excepting 6.2 shutout innings in his playoff debut in the 2022 Wild Card series in St. Louis – Nola has allowed 15 earned runs in 14 innings.

Suarez went 12-8 with a 3.20 ERA in a career-high 157.1 innings. In 11 starts since Aug. 1, he has a 4.10 ERA. He exited his last start early, hit by a line drive on the inner thigh, but Thomson said there were no physical limitations on Suarez.

Suarez has a career 1.43 ERA in 10 appearances and 37.2 innings in the postseason. Two of them in 2022 were out of the bullpen. Suarez went 4.1 scoreless innings with the Phillies facing elimination in Game 4 of the 2024 NLDS at Citi Field.

Thomson said before Game 1 he’d use Suarez as a bridge option in Game 1 if Cristopher Sanchez got into trouble. He said he’d use Suarez as a leverage option Monday.

Starting pitching has not been the Phillies’ problem. Sanchez went 5.2 innings, allowing four hits and two earned runs in Game 1, outpitching Shohei Ohtani. Jesus Luzardo threw six scoreless innings in Game 2 before allowing the first two batters of the seventh to reach. They would come around to score.

Suarez might have helped a Phillies bullpen that has allowed five runs in two games. It has allowed five of seven inherited runners to score.