Nola ‘out of sync’ in rare off day against Marlins, Phillies snap winning streak at six originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
MIAMI – The best-record-in-baseball Phillies were hot. The last-place Marlins were not. The Phillies starting pitcher was Aaron Nola, who last offseason signed a 7-year, $172 million contract to stay with the only organization he’s ever known and has clearly pitched up to the expectations that kind of deal creates so far. The Marlins countered with Darren McCaughan, who had an 8.24 earned run average between the Guardians and Fish.
So, of course, Miami won 9-5 to end the Phillies winning streak Saturday at six.
There were a bunch of reasons for the unexpected outcome. Baseball’s inherent unpredictability is the most obvious. Like an offense that scored a season-high 16 runs Saturday doing little until it was too late Saturday. Like the decision to bring Taijuan Walker in to pitch in the seventh inning another.
But it all starts with the fact that Nola had a rare off day. He lasted 4.2 innings and was charged with 5 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits (including two homers) and 2 walks. It was his shortest and least effective outing since June 3 at Boston when he gave up 8 runs in 3.2 innings.
In the past, his line has occasionally been marred by one stinker of an inning surrounded by several 1-2-3 frames. That wasn’t the case this time. He retired the leadoff batter in the inning just once and consistently found himself pitching out of jams.
“I think just command of the baseball,” Rob Thomson said. “He missed the glove a lot. A lot more than he normally does. And he paid for it. They put a lot of pitches on him, had good at bats against him, too. I was trying to get him through five, but it just didn’t happen.”
Nola was unable to make an in-game adjustment. “Usually he does,” the manager said. “That’s kind of his forte. He figures it out. But it was just a lot of pitches and a lot of misses. You’re going to have days like that.”
Said Nola: “I was out of sync. I threw way too many pitches (101) and when I did get over the plate a little bit, they put some good swings on them and found some holes. It really stinks when you don’t finish five innings. It was just one of those weird days.”
Garrett Stubbs, who will be the Phillies regular catcher until J.T. Realmuto’s sore right knee recovers sufficiently for him to return to the lineup, provided most of the team’s offense Saturday. And he did it…