Phillies: Aaron Nola giving fans hope with scorching stretch
The Philadelphia Phillies are in contention for being the worst team in the league, but there are still some bright spots in the organization. Aaron Nola is one of them, and he’s been tearing it up after a rough first half.
Other than watching the Phillie Phanatic’s antics on the field, there hasn’t been much to talk about in Philadelphia for much of the season.
Aaron Nola is trying to change that.
Fans forgot about the former LSU product for much of the first half, as he posted an underwhelming 5.06 ERA through April and May. Since then, he’s been dealing, dropping his ERA to a tidy 3.17.
His performance Wednesday may have been his most impressive one of the year, as he stymied Houston’s powerful offense for six innings while notching 10 strikeouts. That’s a season-high for the Phillies’ ace.
It would seem like Nola changed his mechanics dramatically or his pitch execution to be capable of turning his season around. But that hasn’t really been the case.
Based on statistics, there hasn’t been much of a difference between what Nola is throwing now versus two months ago. His pitches have just been much more effective.
From May 21 to June 27, Nola’s opponents never boasted a swinging-strike percentage of more than 10 percent, per Fangraphs. It’s been above that in four of the right-hander’s previous five starts – the Astros kept it under 10, surprisingly.
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He’s not throwing his off-speed stuff more or less than usual, mixing it up depending on the matchups. Against Houston, he worked his curveball, throwing 39 of them out of 103 pitches. In his start before that, 18 of his 96 pitches were curves, just 18.8 percent.
Moreover, Nola has a similar trend in terms of his changeup usage. On average, he uses it 15.6 percent of the time, but that number has reached 25 percent in some starts.
Maybe the biggest surprise is that he was a better pitcher last season. His strikeout rate was higher and his walk rate was lower, yet he held a bloated 4.78 ERA at the end of July before getting injured for the remainder of the year.
For Philadelphia, Nola is the future. He’s the headliner for the rotation, and it looks like his potential is finally showing. He just needs more time. He spent just one year in the minors before getting promoted to the big show. He’s thrown just 287 career innings across three seasons.
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Whether anyone wants to admit it, Nola has a lot of pressure on his shoulders. With a rotation that includes inconsistent, injury-riddled players like Vince Velasquez, Nola will need to keep taking strides forward to get his club back into the playoff picture in the years ahead.
If not, the pitching staff could be less promising than fans expect.