Since making his major league debut 11 months ago Aaron Nola has not had to face much adversity.
Until now.
Five days after turning in the shortest performance of his career – 3 2/3 innings where he gave up four earned runs on seven hits – he had an even shorter outing.
In what was the worst of his 27 major league starts, Nola made it to the fourth but didn’t record an out. He gave up a career-high eight runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits as the Blue Jays topped the Phillies 13-2, breaking out the bats for the second night in a row at Citizens Bank Park.
Toronto piled up 17 hits, had baserunners every inning and smacked five homers in the rout.
It looked just as bad as it sounds.
To make matters worse there was Tyler Goeddel losing a ball in the lights in left field in the fourth allowing a run to score making it 8-0. And Odubel Herrera thinking there was three outs, when there were only two, after catching a fly ball in center in the eighth and throwing it in the stands. A baserunner advanced to third when the ball was thrown into the crowd and scored during the next at-bat giving the Blue Jays an 11-1 lead.
The Phillies, who committed four errors, have now lost 20 of their last 26 games including seven of their last eight.
Phillies manager Pete Mackanin held a team meeting, where he was the only one to speak, immediately after the loss but wouldn’t go into the details of his message.
“It’ll stay in the clubhouse, but I just let them know I wasn’t pleased,” Mackanin said. “...There’s a few things I’ve been thinking about that I wanted to have a meeting and mention. Today was a combination of those thoughts. A lot of it was positive.”
He said he wasn’t happy with Herrera’s actions but it wasn’t the last straw in sparking the need for a meeting. In fact, he didn’t speak to Herrera at all. Mackanin didn’t believe anything needed to be said to his center fielder.
“He knows,” Mackanin said. “He better know.” Nola began the night striking out the side in the first inning, the only problem was before he got Kevin Pillar to swing through a curveball ending the inning, he surrendered three straight hits, including back-to-back homers to Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Saunders. It was 3-0 before the Phillies even picked up a bat.
The Phillies’ starter had a relatively clean second, giving up just a single but started the third with consecutive free passes, the first of which eventually scored for a 4-0 Toronto lead.
It was the fourth inning that was the worst for Nola. A leadoff double and then a sacrifice bunt that Cameron Rupp could not properly handle put runners on the corners. Jose Bautista singled in a run for a 5-0 advantage before Nola issued his third walk, loading the bases and ending his night.
Right-hander Colton Murray entered in relief and allowed all three inherited runners to score.
“Pretty much the same as last one,” Nola said of his performance. “Just getting behind in counts, strike one wasn’t there again tonight. I really didn’t make an adjustment.”
With his last two starts, Nola has raised his ERA from 2.65 to 3.51.
“He just looks out of sync,” Mackanin said. “His breaking ball is flat.”
Nola obviously believes he needs to make some adjustments but feels healthy and doesn’t think there are any mechanical issues.
“It’s tough for the team when I can’t get out of the fourth inning,” Nola said. “It’s unacceptable on my part. I feel like it’s a letdown for the team.”
While they didn’t get a quality start from Nola, the Phillies’ offense didn’t help matters.
Through five innings the Phillies’ one hit – a Tommy Joseph double – as a team was just as many as former Phillie J.A. Happ, the Blue Jays’ starting pitcher, had. Joseph’s hit snapped an 0-for-17 skid.
Philadelphia finished with five hits and tacked on two runs late.
An RBI single by Jimmy Paredes in the seventh scored Joseph after he reached on an error and following a leadoff double, Peter Bourjos came home on Herrera’s eighth-inning single.
Following the game, Murray was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and the Phillies will make a corresponding roster move before Friday’s game against the Diamondbacks.