Five things we learned from the Phillies-Cardinals series
By John Town
Aaron Nola is human
The Phillies sent out their best starter so far this year, Aaron Nola, to the mound Sunday hoping to secure the series win. Given his impressive start to the season, there was plenty of reason for confidence.
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Unfortunately, Nola showed that he is still human. He gave up four runs to the Cardinals, the most since Sep. 2 last season against the Marlins. Up until Sunday, he had allowed more than two runs just once. Nola finished the game with seven hits, four runs, one home run, and one walk allowed. He struck out six batters over six innings as well.
Given that Philadelphia’s offense completely shut down Sunday, Nola ultimately took the loss.
After this start, he now has a 2.37 ERA, 2.88 fielding-independent pitching, and 4.07 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season. Even after a poor outing Sunday, Nola’s overall numbers for the year are still great. We couldn’t have expected him to be tremendous every outing.