Nola is still ‘kind of sporadic’ on the mound

After the Phillies lost Game 1 of a doubleheader Tuesday at Citi Field, they needed the best from Aaron Nola after dark. While they hardly provided him with offensive support, they received something less.

In a 4-0 Game 2 loss to the Mets, Nola lasted five innings, allowing seven hits and three runs and striking out seven. He was outperformed by Marcus Stroman, who pitched six scoreless innings.

“I just didn’t think he had great command,” Joe Girardi said. “This team makes him work. I think his last outing against them, he had 84 pitches after the fourth inning and it was 80 tonight. He just hasn’t had good command against them.”

With the 4-3 extra-inning loss in the opener, the Phillies have lost five of seven.

“We’re capable of swinging better,” Girardi said. “But right now, we are facing some guys who are throwing pretty well.”

Nola was not particularly pleased with his start.

“It was kind of sporadic,” Nola said. “They hit the ball hard tonight.”

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The seven-inning, doubleheader game worked last season when both the American and National Leagues employed the designated hitter.

The Phillies, and in particular Chase Anderson, found Tuesday that it can be clumsy now that pitchers are required again to hit.

Anderson was pitching fine in Game 1, but because the Phils were trailing, 2-0, with a runner on in the top of the fifth, Girardi was forced lift his starter for pinch-hitter Brad Miller.

In a nine-inning game, or if there were the DH, Anderson almost certainly would have pitched longer.

“In a close game, it’s the manager’s call to leave you in or take you out,” Anderson said. “It’s the right call, for sure.”

Anderson struck out three and walked three. He walked Brandon Nimmo in the first, and fell quickly behind when Dominic Smith hit a two-run homer.

“I wish I could have been a little more efficient,” Anderson said, “and not walked three guys.”

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Reliever Connor Brogdon continues to produce. The righthander entered in the seventh (and last scheduled) inning of a tie game, walked Luis Guillorme and hit Kevin Pillar with a pitch, but sandwiched strikeouts of Nimmo and Smith around a fly ball out from Francisco Lindor to force extra innings.

Given the injury to Archie Bradley and the way Hector Neris failed to hold onto an eighth-inning lead, Brogdon is likely to receive more late-inning opportunities.

“Right now, I see myself in whatever role Joe has for me,” he said. “There was a little added pressure in the seventh, which today played like the ninth. So that carries a little extra weight. But, definitely, there is a little extra pressure in the late innings.”

Anderson, for one, was impressed.

“Hats off to him, coming in for that situation and for what he’s done this season,” Anderson said. “That shows that he can do it. That shows he’s not scared of that situation. He doesn’t have much experience, but he does his thing.”

Brogdon, 26, has only five games of major-league experience, but he is 3-0 this season with a 4.00 ERA.

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JoJo Romero made his first appearance of the season, pitching the fifth, walking run, and coaxing Francisco Lindor into a double play.

The left-handed reliever replaced Archie Bradley, who is on the injured list with an oblique injury, on the roster.

“I could use JoJo all over the place,” Girardi said. “I really think I can use him as an early lefty to come in and get out of a jam. And

I could use him for multiple innings.”

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Jose Alvarado pitched a scoreless seventh in Game 1, although not without an issue.

With two out, the left-hander came up and in and nearly hit Michael Conforto in the face with a 100 mph fastball. When Alvarado’s next pitch, another fastball, crashed into Conforto’s left wrist, Dominic Smith, among other Mets, protested from the dugout.

Alvarado responded with some words of his own. With Alvarado unlikely to have plotted to put the go-ahead run on base in a 2-2 seventh-inning game, tensions quickly settled.

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NOTES » Under doubleheader rules Tuesday, Spencer Howard was recalled from Lehigh Valley to be the Phils’ 27th man. … Didi Gregorius has hit safely in all 11 games. … At 7:10 Wednesday, Zack Wheeler (1-1, 2.31 ERA) will oppose Mets lefty David Peterson (0-1, 13.50).