Nola thriving as pressure builds
PHILADELPHIA — He looks like a different guy from just a month ago. He looks focused, accurate, faster. And most importantly, through his last two starts of the regular season and now through three postseason starts, Aaron Nola looks a whole lot more consistent.
Not only from start to start but from pitch to pitch. Whatever his secret, it has transformed the Phillies from hopeful contenders to, really, a championship favorite, even with six more wins to go before parade plans can commence.
But that’s one area where Nola’s view hasn’t changed — he’s learned the hard way to approach his job with a day-to-day agenda.
“I like our chances for sure,” Nola said after helping the Phillies to a 10-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the NLCS Tuesday night. “But we’ve got to keep putting in the work and competing and we’ll try our best to do that until the end. We’ve still got a ways to go … we’ve got to take it step by step.”
Step by step, delivery after delivery, Nola knew from spring training that he had a ways to go to get back to where he wanted to be with his pitching. The work he put in perhaps took longer than expected to yield results.
“For sure, yeah, I’d say this year’s been kind of inconsistent,” Nola said of his outings, which eventually numbered out to a 12-9 record with a 4.46 ERA and 1.151 WHIP. “Had some good starts and some bad starts, just kind of up and down all year. But I feel a lot better with my delivery now. I’ve tried to simplify it, not move too quick and slow things down. I just had to tinker with a couple of things in the offseason, just because we went to the World Series and that was the first time that it was an extra month. So I had to start a little bit slower than I usually do.”
It wasn’t the slow start that bothered him so much, but the inconsistency which followed. That it was coming in a contract year couldn’t have helped. Nola is earning $16 million this season on an exercised option deal, and as a pending free agent could be looking at a payday worth upwards of $30 million a season. It remains to be seen whether the Phillies will see clear to try to prevent him from testing the market. Until his recent run of success, it was unclear what kind of value Nola might have in the eyes of potential buyers. But over the past month he’s been making a case for himself while showing how invaluable he is to his team.
In August, Nola won all three of his decisions. And after a terrible outing in Milwaukee Sept. 2 in which he gave up seven earned runs and lasted only two outs into the fifth inning, he steadied.
Though Nola did not get another decision until the postseason, the Phillies won the last four games he pitched the rest of the regular season.
Just a tweak here or there, after several months of trying to figure it out, was all it took.
“Just kind of fine tune my mechanics a little bit,” Nola said, downplaying the work he put in late in the season to get himself straightened out. “Trying to step more straight to the plate rather than across my body, and keeping my shoulders squared, especially in my stretch. I feel like that’s helped me command all of my pitches and get rid of the pulled fastballs and changeups, and a lot of arm-side stuff. It’s allowing me to go more straight to the plate.”
He also worked on something he had abandoned in recent seasons, a slide step, which has helped opposing runners stick close to the bag. Not that many have gotten on, anyway.
Nola did not allow an earned run in his first two postseason games in 2022, but was relatively roughed up in the NLCS by the Padres and again twice in the World Series by the Astros.
So far this playoff season, he is 3-0 with an 0.96 ERA, with only 12 hits allowed over the three outings, two walks and 19 strikeouts.
But with last season’s run and ultimate Series collapse still fresh in his mind, he’s not getting ahead of himself. To Nola, nothing’s guaranteed for his team or for his future until the last pitched ball or contract pitch is made.
“I honestly try to soak it in as much as possible,” he said of this postseason coming ahead of an uncertain future. “I try to leave it all out there on the field. I love pitching here. I love pitching in this stadium. But I haven’t really thought much about it all.”