It would be nice to be able to report that Aaron Nola, the Phillies’ resident Opening Day starter, has solved the riddle. Figured out the puzzle. Unlocked the secret to why he’s openly admitted to being frustrated with his own inconsistency so far this season.
He sure looked like he’d cracked the code Monday night against the Tigers at Citizens Bank Park. With two outs in the seventh inning, he still hadn’t given up a hit. He ended the night tying his career high with 12 strikeouts. He didn’t allow an earned run.
That has to be considered a good sign for the Phillies, whose 8-3 beatdown of Detroit extended their winning streak to three games. It was an encouraging development for a team built to contend that has struggled, in part, because the starters’ aggregate earned run average is 4.89.
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So, Aaron, what did you learn in this game that will help you replicate that success moving forward?
“Just try to keep the walks down and stay ahead of guys. That’s the biggest thing for me. It’s harder to pitch when you’re behind in the count no matter what team you’re facing,” he said.
Er, um. Didn’t you know that already?
“I knew that,” he confirmed. “That’s the goal, right? But it doesn’t always work out and it gets frustrating at times.”
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So we’ll settle instead with making the obvious observation that Nola pitched what was easily his best game of the season and that he and the rest of the rotation need to pick it up if the defending National League champions are to make it back to the postseason.
How good was he? He faced the minimum 18 batters through the first six innings while allowing just two balls to be hit out of the infield. Only two batters reached base, both on walks. Jake Marisnick was retired on a pick-off/caught stealing in the third inning and Nick Maton was erased as part of a double play in the fifth.
Even against a team that ranks dead last in the big leagues in runs scored and lost its best hitter, Riley Greene, to an injury last week, it was an impressive performance.
Nola’s third walk of the game, on four pitches to Zach McKinstry leading off the seventh, came back to bite him, though.
Javier Baez followed with a bounding grounder to third that eluded Edmundo Sosa, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Sosa was charged with an error.
Nola came ever so close to pitching his way out of trouble. He struck out Akil Baddoo. Spencer Torkelson ripped a shot down the third base line that appeared headed for extra bases. But Sosa redeemed himself with a diving stop, scrambled to his feet and threw the runner out at first.
“I wasn’t thinking too much of it,” Sosa said through interpreter Diego Ettedgui. “But it’s interesting how everything unfolded. My previous play was that error. And when I looked up to the scoreboard to see that they put up the error, I also noticed that it was a no-hitter.
“So in my mind, it was almost like, ‘I cannot be messing up like this. This guy is pitching such a good game.’ And then that play happened and I knew it was time for me to make up for my error and to help him keep the no-hitter going.”
That brought up Maton, the former Phillie who, along with Matt Vierling, received his 2022 Phillies National League championship ring from owner John Middleton and President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski before the game.
Nola got two quick strikes. He was one pitch away. Unfortunately for him, that pitch was a 78.5 mile an hour knuckle curve that Maton drilled into the second deck in right field. The no-hitter and the shutout vanished along with the ball.
Asked if he expected to hear about it from Maton, he grinned. “I’m sure I’ll hear about it from him for the rest of my life,” he said.
He then struck out Eric Haase to end the inning. That gave him 108 pitches, meaning he probably wouldn’t have been around to try to complete the no-hitter even if he’d retired Maton, although he said he would have politicked with manager Rob Thomson to stay in the game.
“I would have definitely tried to,” he said. “I’ve never gotten into the eighth before with a no-hitter so I’m definitely going to go back out there and try to make better pitches. Not really try to pick at the corners and be too perfect, knowing that the pitch count is getting up there.”
Thomson made it pretty clear he wouldn’t have been persuaded.
“He may have been able to go one more inning,” the manager said before adding, “But I wouldn’t have chanced his health.”
And after the no-hitter was gone, it was a given that Nola would be, too.
“Serranthony Dominguez was going out for the eighth, no matter what,” Thomson said.
It wouldn’t be realistic to expect Nola to take a no-hitter deep into the game in his next start against the Dodgers. But the Phillies are crossing their fingers that his success against the Tigers will have a carryover effect. In the meantime, we’ll all just have to wait until Sunday’s game against the Dodgers to find out.