Nola doesn’t allow ‘pretty bad pitch’ to ruin his day

Considering it was a sub-50-degree Opening Day afternoon with a wind strong enough to blow even a shorter-snouted New Phanatic into a 360-degree turn, Aaron Nola seemed comfortably in midseason form Thursday.

The Phillies ace, getting the start in his fourth consecutive season opener, was allowed to take comfort in the outcome, which thanks to a walk-off Jean Segura single in the 10th inning gave the Phillies a 3-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves at sparsely populated Citizens Bank Park.

“Felt good to pretty much get seven ups and downs,” Nola said with a nod to his pitching line, “and first of all, an unbelievable win and way to take that first game of the season.”

Indeed it was a noteworthy victory as April 1 games go, no fooling. But in the context of Nola career trends, it was also a little too typical: Victories aside, Nola again fell one step — or in his case, one pitch — shy of a completely successful start.

That’s because, cruising with a two-run lead and two outs and an 0-2 count to Pablo “Panda” Sandoval, Nola almost inexplicably carved a fastball into the veteran’s visual sweet spot.

The ball promptly picked a sweet spot in the upper deck in right field for a home run that tied the game and made for a prompt exit one out short of seven ups and downs. One bad pitch ... “He was great,” manager Joe Girardi countered. “This is an extremely dangerous lineup. We saw what this lineup did consistently last year. This was a team, like I’ve said a number of times, that was one game away from the World Series. To be able to hold a lineup down like that, that was some really good pitching.”

Nola indeed threw a lot of good pitches among his 84, including a huge nip of the outside corner for a called third strike in the sixth inning on Travis d’Arnaud for the third out with two Braves in scoring position.

Nola allowed only the two runs on the Sandoval homer and six hits over a 6 2/3 inning stint, with no walks and six strikeouts. And yes, he probably could have done more.

There were hints that he was losing a little edge in the sixth, before he struck out d’Arnaud. Marcell Ozuna had jumped on a Nola pitch and lined it toward left, a sure two-run hit ... or so it appeared. Out of nowhere came the lengthy glove arm of third baseman Alec Bohm, who snagged the liner and kept the Phillies’ 2-0 lead intact.

“Huge man, huge,” Nola raved of that play. “If he’s not that tall I don’t think he’d be able to catch it. Saved a run or two right there.”