Aaron Nola fought his way from terrible to good.
However, the right-hander stated Wednesday night that the situation was “unacceptable” to begin with.
The Giants defeated the Phillies 11–4. After failing to find the zone to begin, Nola was tagged for three consecutive hits, walked Wilmer Flores to bring a run over, and then walked Heliot Ramos to load the bases. After a mound visit, Patrick Bailey scored two more runs on a grounder that hopped off Trea Turner’s glove at short, and San Francisco suddenly had a 4-0 lead. Once more, the Phillies were playing from behind.
Nola walked in a run for the second time in a row. In his ten-year career, he had only done that once before, and now he’s up to three.
He has a 0–4 start to the season as well. Although he has had poor beginning months in the past, this is new. Nola remarked in the clubhouse, “It was by far the worst start I’ve ever had.”
And that’s an issue for a Phillies team that, going into 2025, had maybe its best starting pitching.
It took Nola thirty-five pitches to get through the first, but she eventually settle in. He controlled his pitch count to 81 going into the sixth inning and held the Giants to just one more run allowed through the fifth, allowing the Phillies’ batters to rally to get back in it.
However, Nola got into problems again after manager Rob Thomson ordered him back out there.
After 5.1 innings, he loaded the bases once more with a single and two more walks before the ball was sent to reliever José Ruiz.
After Ruiz walked home the following hitter, the Phillies’ fortunes took a drastic turn for the worse.
Nola’s final line for the evening was nine hits, seven runs given up (six earned), four walks, and eight strikeouts. After Wednesday night, his WHIP averaged an unsettling 1.662, and his ERA skyrocketed to 6.65.
Nola has walked four hitters in back-to-back appearances since last week in St. Louis and Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park. There is an issue.
Nola remarked, “I just gotta get ahead better,” Too many free passes, and typically, when runs are scored, I’m just making things more difficult for myself.
“Eight walks in two games overall, it’s not good, so I’ll clean it up.”
He will eventually be needed by the Phillies.
Nola’s pitching style has become evident at this time.
When he’s on, he appears to be nearly unhittable as the strikeouts pile up.
When he is not playing, the strike zone gets smaller, the number of pitches increases dramatically, and the day becomes a huge battle.
Although they can be unpleasant when they do occur, his excellent days add a lot of value to the top of the rotation and have usually made the bad ones tolerable.
But Nola hasn’t yet reached his full potential, and until he does, it’s a problem—or at the very least, a cause for alarm.
But there’s room for him to sort it out. The 31-year-old stated after the game that his body feels well and that his confidence is in a good place, even though it is only April.
“Reputation alone suggests that Nola will turn things around, even though the results aren’t adding up right now,” Thomson stated after the game.
“This guy’s a grinder,” the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies said. “He enters the sixth inning after throwing 35 pitches in the first. No matter what kind of stuff he has, he manages to figure it out because he had 81 after five. He will fight and he will grind.
However, he went from awful to good and back again on Wednesday night, which was too much for the Phillies to handle. There is an issue.
Nola stated, “All I can do is keep working,” “Keep trying to have good weeks and prepare as best as I can for the next game I pitch, take all my work into that game, and just compete.”
