The Philadelphia Phillies have turned their season around after a slow start.
It was always going to be the players who needed to perform better to get the Phillies back into contention.
That is exactly what has happened.
Pitcher Aaron Nola has been one of the steady forces for the Phillies this year.
While his stats haven’t been Nola-caliber, he’s at least been reliable every five days.
According to Scott Lauber, Wednesday’s outing against the Cubs was the first time Nola didn’t complete six innings since April 11.
First time since April 11 that Aaron Nola didn’t complete six innings. It was the longest streak in the majors and the second longest of his career. Nola pitched five innings and allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks. #Phillies lead 8-4 in the seventh.
—Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) June 29, 2023
His streak of consecutive 6+ inning starts was the longest in the majors.
The Phillies can always count on Nola to come out and take the ball every five days.
But, they just hope it returns to All-Star caliber production like it has so many times.
During the season, Nola has made a league-leading 17 starts and has pitched 105.2 innings.
He has a 4.51 ERA and 102 strikeouts with 29 walks.
This is Nola’s ninth season in the MLB and he has only posted an ERA above 4.00 twice.
One problem for Nola is that he’s not striking out hitters at the rate he normally does.
He has had a K/9 (strikeouts per nine) of over 10.0 in each of the past four seasons.
So far this year, Nola’s K/9 is 8.7.
Getting him to miss bats at a high rate again will be something the Phillies’ coaching staff should consider.
If the Phillies want to make another deep playoff run and compete for the National League pennant, they’ll need the best of Nola.
NEXT:
The Phillies are in the midst of a dominating streak
