Nola ‘out of sync' in rare off day against Marlins, Phillies snap winning streak at six

MIAMI – The best-record-in-baseball Phillies were hot. The last-place Marlins were not. The Phillies starting pitcher was Aaron Nola, who last offseason signed a 7-year, $172 million contract to stay with the only organization he’s ever known and has clearly pitched up to the expectations that kind of deal creates so far. The Marlins countered with Darren McCaughan, who had an 8.24 earned run average between the Guardians and Fish.

So, of course, Miami won 9-5 to end the Phillies winning streak Saturday at six.

There were a bunch of reasons for the unexpected outcome. Baseball’s inherent unpredictability is the most obvious. Like an offense that scored a season-high 16 runs Saturday doing little until it was too late Saturday. Like the decision to bring Taijuan Walker in to pitch in the seventh inning another.

But it all starts with the fact that Nola had a rare off day. He lasted 4.2 innings and was charged with 5 runs (4 earned) on 9 hits (including two homers) and 2 walks. It was his shortest and least effective outing since June 3 at Boston when he gave up 8 runs in 3.2 innings.

In the past, his line has occasionally been marred by one stinker of an inning surrounded by several 1-2-3 frames. That wasn’t the case this time. He retired the leadoff batter in the inning just once and consistently found himself pitching out of jams.

“I think just command of the baseball,” Rob Thomson said. “He missed the glove a lot. A lot more than he normally does. And he paid for it. They put a lot of pitches on him, had good at bats against him, too. I was trying to get him through five, but it just didn’t happen.”

Nola was unable to make an in-game adjustment. “Usually he does,” the manager said. “That’s kind of his forte. He figures it out. But it was just a lot of pitches and a lot of misses. You’re going to have days like that.”

Said Nola: “I was out of sync. I threw way too many pitches (101) and when I did get over the plate a little bit, they put some good swings on them and found some holes. It really stinks when you don’t finish five innings. It was just one of those weird days.”

Garrett Stubbs, who will be the Phillies regular catcher until J.T. Realmuto’s sore right knee recovers sufficiently for him to return to the lineup, provided most of the team’s offense Saturday. And he did it without hitting the ball out of the infield, which says a lot about the Phillies offense Saturday.

He led off the second by bunting to the first-base side of the mound for a hit. Not only that, he lit out for second when pitcher Darren McCaughan’s wild throw sailed into foul territory down the right field line. He slid safely into second, then picked himself up and slid into third after the throw from second baseman Otto Lopez rolled into left for the second error of the play.

Stubbs then slid home on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Schwarber to score one of the most unearned runs imaginable.

With Johan Rojas on third after a one-out triple in the fifth, Stubbs rolled a squeeze bunt down the line that was so well-placed that third baseman Connor Norby had no choice but to let the ball roll as Rojas scored and Stubbs crossed first.

Even with all that, the Phillies were still within striking distance going into the bottom of the seventh, down by three with six outs to go. At least they were until Thomson brought Taijuan Walker into the game in the bottom of the seventh.

Walker came off the injured list on August 13 and made four starts through August 28. In those games he was 0-3 with a 9.17 earned run average. Opponents batted .377 against him with a 1.124 OPS. After that game it was announced that he was being sent to the bullpen.

Before Saturday, he had made one relief appearance, giving up two runs in three mop-up innings. So he seemed like a curious choice to try to keep the Phillies in the game and, at any rate, it didn’t work out.

After getting the first out, Walker gave up a home run to Lopez, then walked Griffin Conine. Nick Fortas doubled to put runners on second and third. David Hensley hit a grounder to shortstop Trea Turner, who tried to cut off the run. But his throw got past Stubbs and, before the play was over, both Conine and Fortes had crossed the plate.

The Phillies scored twice in the top of the eighth. So if Walker – or another reliever – had been able to keep Miami off the broad in the bottom of the seventh, in theory at least that would have brought the Phils within one and who knows what might have happened then?

In Thomson’s mind, his only other option in that situation would have been Max Lazar. Jose Ruiz and Tanner Banks had already been in the game. He normally doesn’t use Carlos Estevez, Jeff Hoffman, Matt Strahm or Orion Kerkering when the team is trailing. He could have used Jose Alvarado, who is working his way back after leaving the team for personal reasons, but explained that since Alvarado pitched Friday that would have left him unavailable for Sunday.

And while he didn’t spell it out, he seemed to be saying that he wants to have as many bullpen options available to him as possible Sunday when righthander Seth Johnson makes his Major League debut.

Which left Walker. “It’s an adjustment for him,” Thomson said. “They hit a couple balls hard on pitches down the middle. Now, that inning before he came in was a quick inning on offense. He didn’t have a lot of time to get ready. Not to make an excuse, but I take that into account.

“It’s one of those things. Trial and error. We’ll see if he can adjust to that role.”

Honestly, at this point it’s hard to see what role Walker can contribute in for the rest of the season, hard to envision him even being on the postseason roster.

Then again, it would have been pretty hard to imagine the Phillies losing to the Marlins Saturday, either.

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