For the better part of a decade, Aaron Nola has been the Phillies’ workhorse.
It’s a role he takes pride in. Six times, he has taken down over 180 innings in a season. But lately, that durability has started to show cracks.
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Last year, Nola was uncharacteristically hampered by injuries. He’s healthy now, but his bounceback season hasn’t gone according to plan. And after Monday’s 11-7 loss to the Pirates, where he allowed a season-high seven earned runs over just 4⅓ innings, the path forward isn’t clear.
“I haven’t really had a stretch like this ever in my career,” said Nola, whose season ERA has risen to 6.04.
Nola squandered a 5-0 lead the offense built against Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft. Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh each hit solo homers in the first inning, while Bryce Harper hit a two-run shot in the third. All three homers came in two-strike counts.
But Nola had issues with homers, too. He looked efficient early with an eight-pitch first inning, and was getting a lot of batters to swing and miss. But he started to falter by the fourth. Bryan Reynolds was inches away from clearing the top of the railing in left-center, settling for a leadoff double. He scored anyway when Esmerlyn Valdez teed up a curveball over the middle of the plate for a two-run shot.
“Early in that game I thought he was going to roll,” said interim manager Don Mattingly. “The way he was throwing the ball, it seemed sharp. Good breaking ball, down in the zone, a lot of swing-and-miss early in the game. And then just got sideways. So I’m not quite sure what happened.”
For the seventh time this year, Nola failed to get out of the fifth inning, which turned ugly quickly. Nola allowed four hits — including another homer and a double — and walked two in the frame.
Three runs had already scored when Seth Johnson finally relieved him with the bases loaded, and all three inherited runs would score, too.
“It just sped up on him quite a bit there,” said catcher J.T. Realmuto. “The stuff diminished quite a bit. … You could just tell he got a little tired, it was hot, just the stuff wasn’t as good that inning.”
Although Nola induced 23 whiffs from Pirates hitters, the second-most in a game in his career, he wasn’t able to take many positives from his outing.
“A lot of runs tonight, I didn’t really do well with the lead I got, what the guys gave me. They hit really well tonight,” Nola said. “… Swing and misses, honestly, tonight it doesn’t really matter. Gave up too many hits, too many runs, got to be better at that.”
The two homers Nola allowed Monday upped his season total to 19, which is tied for fifth-most among pitchers this year.
As Nola tries to find a way to turn his season around, he has started toying with a slider as a potential different look for hitters. It can be a challenge to add a new pitch mid-season and he hasn’t thrown it much. He flashed it three times against the Pirates, generating one whiff.
“Just something different,” Nola said. “I throw so many curveballs, and I feel like we saw it tonight, if one pops, it usually gets barreled. So we’ll see.”
Nola’s shorter outing caused the Phillies to turn to their bullpen earlier than hoped, as the unit had been taxed recently after some tight games against the Nationals and Mets.
After entering the game, Johnson issued a leadoff walk to force in the go-ahead run, and then induced a grounder to Harper. He got the force out at second, but Turner flung the ball high over first base, allowing two more runs to score for the 8-5 Pirates lead. Turner’s error is his 11th of the season, which has already surpassed his full-season total of eight in 2025.
The offense showed some life late, though. Marsh hit his second homer of the game in the eighth to start chipping away. He fell behind in the count, 1-2, to Gregory Soto, but put a good swing on a high and inside fastball. Bryson Stott and J.T. Realmuto hit back-to-back two-out singles to cut the lead to 8-7.
Derek Hill kept the line moving with a walk, but Justin Crawford was called out on strikes to end it, stranding two.
In the ninth, Mattingly opted to use righty Chase Shugart, who had blown a save against the Mets on Sunday, with the intention of preserving his higher-leverage arms. It backfired when he gave up a three-run homer to Pittsburgh catcher Endy Rodríguez that put the Pirates back ahead by four runs.
“I really didn’t feel like I have much of a choice, honestly, there,” Mattingly said. “Didn’t really feel like, where we’re at with everything, we could just keep chasing a win in with our back-end guys and lose another one. Yeah, I felt like we had to get through that with Shug. He gets two outs quick, and then little kind of a halfway flare to center, and yeah, obviously the breaking ball he hits for the homer.”
In the bottom of the ninth, Turner struck out, Schwarber grounded out, and Marsh struck out to end it.
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