Philly Leader

Aaron Nola entered his 29th start of the season on a hot streak. Over his previous four games -- all of which the Phillies had won -- Nola had posted a 1.44 ERA with 24 strikeouts and just six walks.

But Nola cooled off against the Marlins, getting hit early and often as he went just 4 2/3 innings in the Phillies’ 9-5 loss on Saturday afternoon at loanDepot park -- Nola’s shortest start since June 13, when he went 3 2/3 vs. the Red Sox. The reason? Nola’s command was off from the start.

In the first inning, Nola left a sinker -- what he called a “side-step sinker” -- down the middle and low in the zone to Connor Norby, who promptly sent the ball deep to center field for a two-run homer. By Nola’s 101st and final pitch, he’d allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits (two homers) and two walks while striking out five.

“[I was] a little out of sync,” Nola said. “Too many balls -- threw away too many pitches today. And then when I did get over the plate a little bit … they put some good swings on them, found some holes -- two home runs, big home run in the first and a couple walks. I mean, [it] sucks when you don't finish five innings at least, so the bullpen has to eat those innings up.”

Nola was working with a tweaked arsenal, leaning on his four-seam fastball and his knuckle curve more than usual. Nola’s four-seamer accounted for 37% of his pitches vs. Miami (vs. his season average of 27.2% usage) while he used his knuckle curve, the main offering in his arsenal (32.9% of his pitches this season), 3.1 percentage points more than usual. He shied away from his sinker and changeup as a result.

“Those pitches have been feeling pretty good lately, but the changeup really hadn't been feeling good all year,” Nola said. “So it would have been nice to use that, but just -- I threw a few of them and I didn't really feel good again. So, you know, it's a little bit harder just pitching with two pitches. So I really just tried to command those pitches as best as possible. They laid off some good ones, but I feel like a lot of the curveballs were balls out of hand, so they were easy for them to lay off of.”

Added catcher Garrett Stubbs: “I thought the curveball was really good -- there wasn't a lot of hard contact on the curveball. I don't think we located the fastballs exactly where we wanted to -- which happens -- and also felt like when we didn't locate the fastballs, some of them were ground balls that just found holes.”

While Stubbs helped Nola navigate the Marlins’ less experienced lineup, he also bailed Nola out offensively. Stubbs took advantage of Miami’s equally inexperienced defense by bunting in his first two plate appearances and reaching base both times. In the third inning, it resulted in a Little League triple (a single and two errors); he quickly scored on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Schwarber. Then, in the fifth inning, Stubbs laid another bunt down the third-base line for an RBI single.

“I just try to tap it where they're not standing and then run for my life,” Stubbs said. “Something that I like to use as often as I can because hitting is really tough -- especially when you're in there every five days...so I practice it a lot because I know that timing is everything with hitting...I like to use [bunting] as a way to help the team score runs.”

Stubbs delivered defensively as well by catching a popup in foul territory to end a troublesome fifth inning -- narrowly avoiding collision with first baseman Bryce Harper.

“They're human -- that's what happened,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Nola's performance.“They're just human beings...I don't care how good of a pitcher or hitter some of these superstars in league [are].…We got to him today...he's really good pitcher...not looking forward seeing name enter series.”