Observers of Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies have danced around the issue gingerly since the beginning of the season. Has the Phils righthander been struggling with MLB’s new pitch clock rules? The pitcher just doesn’t seem as sharp as he has been in the past. He is clearly not as sharp as he had been in 2018, ’20, or ’22, when he had finished in the top seven among NL Cy Young voters.
Twice he had been in the top four.
This year, however? Flat, flat, flat. Is this because of the pitch clock?
It is now June. Should Phillies hurler Aaron Nola still be struggling with the pitch clock?
Arguably, Nola has thrown only one excellent game this season, an eight-inning, three-hit effort against Houston on April 28, his second win of the season. In 12 of his 14 games this season, he has given up a home run, including his last ten in a row. His ERA is, after losing June 10 to the Dodgers, 4.60.
Could all this just be part of Nola’s curious, career-long, odd-year fall-off pattern?
It says here: No. Aaron Nola is struggling with the pitch clock, and we now have hard evidence of that from his most recent loss. It came in the sixth inning of that loss, a 9-0 drubbing.
As per Alex Coffey’s account, third base umpire Bill Miller warned Nola about stalling when he asked for a new ball immediately after he had gotten a new one from his catcher. This resulted, ultimately, in Phillies manager Rob Thomson being thrown out of the game after arguing that the rule against stalling doesn’t directly address asking for multiple new balls.
Following the game, however, a pool report indicated that Miller explained exactly what he had seen: “Nola did a good job the first two to three innings. And then, as the game went on, he started to throw more and more balls out.” But: “, he caught the ball. He took two steps, he turned around, and said I need a new ball. He never felt the ball until he took it out and wanted another one.”
Caught.
Unless you believe Miller was lying. However, down that road lay “alternate facts,” right?
Oh, of course, Aaron Nola could be such a professional pitcher that he immediately knows a ball is too slick upon touching it, but that strains credulity a bit.
The Phillies workhorse seems to clearly be fighting himself over the pitch clock, particularly when he begins to tire a bit. He may ultimately work this problem out, but if he doesn’t, what we will see is the first important casualty of the pitch clock, a truly excellent pitcher who becomes merely a ballpark .500 performer.
That’s what Aaron Nola is at the moment, as everyone mulls over his 5-5 record, that 4.60 ERA, and his 4.25 FIP figure, the last the highest of his career.