Nola doesn’t allow 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 vic
tory 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 the two runs on the Sandoval homer and six hits over a 6.2 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 tworun 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.”
It got the Phillies into the seventh with the lead, and Nola was well on his way to finishing the top of that inning, looking for more when No. 8 hitter Cristian Pache popped a two-out double to left field. The Braves made the call to Sandoval ... and after two quick strikes, Nola simply delivered the wrong pitch.
“That last pitch to Sandoval was a pretty bad pitch,” Nola said. “Obviously I didn’t try to go there, I guess I tried to backspin it as much as I could and I cut it. And he made me pay.”
But even if it was another Nola outing that ended a little short of satisfying, it did end on a positive note ... primarily because team president Dave Dombrowski rebuilt the bullpen in the offseason. Archie Bradley, Jose Alvarado, Hector Neris and Connor Brogdon kept the Braves locked on two runs until Segura could secure it in the 10th.
Nola paid tribute to that relief work, then summarized what it meant. “Overall, we got the win,” he said, “and that’s all that matters.”