PHILADELPHIA — Phillies right-handed pitcher Aaron Nola, making his fifth consecutive opening-day start, looked incredibly efficient with a 6-1 lead over the Oakland Athletics through six innings on Friday. It was the seventh inning that got him, and it got him bad when Seth Brown hit a three-run home run to end Nola’s day.
Things only got worse from there. Phillies third baseman Bryson Stott missed a catch for an error, then made another error, overthrowing a ball to first base that scored a run and got Oakland within 6-5. But much like they likely will do often this season, the Phillies’ bats bailed them out, adding a run in the seventh inning and two in the eighth for a 9-5 victory.
Nola allowed four hits, four earned runs, no walks and struck out seven. His line was a bit deceiving, as two of his four hits were home runs, and those accounted for the four earned runs. But what might be more important to Nola’s 2022 season, long-term, was that he induced eight groundouts. Nola’s fly ball rate spiked from 27.5% in 2020 to 40.5% in 2021. Keeping the ball on the ground was important for him coming into this season, so the fact that he was able to do that early in the game was a positive sign.
