ATLANTA — Aaron Nola yielded two runs in seven innings May 15, and still, the Phillies lost. He gave up one run in seven innings May 5, and still, the Phillies lost. He tossed seven scoreless innings April 24, and guess what? Yep, the Phillies lost.
If ever a pitcher deserved the chance to finish his own game, after all that, it was Nola.
So, with a four-run lead in tow Thursday night, the Phillies let Nola take the mound for the ninth inning despite having thrown 101 pitches. He recorded the first out before giving up a double that went over right fielder Nick Castellanos’ head.
Cue the bullpen.
This time, there was minimal drama. Closer Corey Knebel wild-pitched home a run, but the Phillies emerged with a 4-1 victory. And for the first time since opening day — 48 days earlier, at Citizens Bank Park — they won a game started by Nola, whose 8 2/3-inning gem propelled them to a road split of a four-game series with the Atlanta Braves.
The Phillies needed this. Badly. After absorbing a gut-wrenching walk-off loss Tuesday night and falling on an exceedingly rare wild-pitch/center-fielder error misplay Wednesday night, Nola gave them a chance by dominating the Braves.
As usual, Nola didn’t get much run support save for J.T. Realmuto’s solo homer in the third inning and a two-run double by Odúbel Herrera in the seventh. But he also didn’t need it. He scattered five hits, didn’t issue a walk, and recorded 10 strikeouts.
Nola’s curveball, typically the bellwether pitch in his starts, was devastatingly effective. He threw it 35 times and got 10 swings and misses, including a flail by Ozzie Albies for the second out of the eighth inning.
The Braves had a two-on, one-out rally in the second inning but came up empty. They notched back-to-back two-out hits in the third, but Nola whiffed Matt Olson to extinguish that threat.
After that, Nola retired nine batters in a row and 17 of the next 18.
Back in the swing
In addition to representing the biggest swing of the game for the Phillies, Realmuto’s homer capped a series in which he seemed to finally come around at the plate.
When the Phillies arrived in Atlanta, Realmuto was stuck in a 10-for-68 rut that lowered his average to .224 and left him tinkering with his leg kick to improve his timing. But the workhorse catcher went 2 for 4 with a triple Monday night, then had one hit in each of the next three games.
Realmuto finished 5 for 11 with two walks and two hit by pitches against the Braves.
Challenge accepted
With center fielder Mickey Moniak closing in on a return from his broken right hand, Herrera delivered two hits, including the two-run double in the seventh inning against Braves lefty Will Smith.
Coincidence?
A little competition never hurt anyone, as the saying goes. The Phillies were mulling whether to have Moniak join them in New York this weekend after three games at Double-A Reading, a move that likely would cut into Herrera’s playing time.
Herrera can ward off that challenge, at least for a little while, by hitting as he did against the Braves. He crushed a 431-foot solo homer off the facing of the restaurant beyond the right-field fence Wednesday night and had two hits in the series finale.
