Rob Thomson is probably one of the most even-keeled humans in baseball. It’s why it was weird to see him fuming in the top of the sixth of Saturday’s 9-0 loss to the Dodgers.
Crew chief Bill Miller, who was the third-base umpire in Saturday’s game, appeared to disapprove of Aaron Nola throwing the ball out too many times. Miller thought Nola was stalling for more time on the pitch clock.
Thomson came to the defense of his pitcher and was ejected after a spirited back-and-forth.
“Part of the rule is you’re not supposed to delay or you could have a violation, but it doesn’t specifically talk about throwing baseballs,” Thomson said after the game. “Baseballs are all different. They feel different in a pitcher’s hand and plus, sometimes they can get slick in the bags after six or seven innings, umpires sweat too. They get a little slick. So I was upset at the fact that they weren’t going to let him switch up the baseballs.”
It’s the first time this problem has come up for the Phillies.
“Nobody has said a word about it up until today,” Thomson said.
Miller explained his perspective to pool reporter Alex Coffey.
“[Nola] caught the ball,” Miller said. “He took two steps, he turned around, and said I need a new ball. He never felt the ball until he took it out and wanted another one.”
It’s up to the interpretation of the umpire to decide whether or not a pitcher is circumventing the clock.
“Obviously it’s very sensitive — when the pitch clock goes off, and whether or not people are going to circumvent the rules that are in place,” Miller said. “Nola did a good job the first two to three innings. And then, as the game went on, he started to throw more and more balls out. Where we felt, he was trying to reset the clock. Which is an attempt to circumvent the pitch clock regulations.”
It turned out Miller was right. While he did say the ball was not to his liking, Nola admitted that he also threw the ball out to recoup a couple extra seconds on the clock.
“I guess they didn’t want me to throw the ball away,” Nola said. “I was feeling it and then I was walking back to the mound. I was on the grass and the clock had started, so, honestly, I wanted to throw the ball out to get an extra second. I guess they didn’t like that. It is what it is.”
It’s not the first time the pitch clock has ticked off Nola. Nola expressed frustration on the speed of the Citizens Bank Park clock. The theory does have some merit to it.
“How fast do you really want the game?” Nola said later.
But in the end, the pitch clock was not the reason why Nola had a disappointing line in Saturday’s game. He allowed six earned runs over 6 1/3 innings.
“I don’t really want to talk too much more about it. We just lost. I didn’t have a great start. I didn’t give the team the best chance to win,” Nola said.
The biggest concern from Saturday was the zero underneath the run column for the Phillies. After working out a 34-pitch second inning against Bobby Miller, the offense went down quietly. They combined to make Miller throw 35 pitches over the next three innings. He threw six shutout innings to earn his third victory of the season.
Per the Dodgers, Miller is the ninth pitcher since 1901 to allow two runs or fewer over his first four career starts.
The first six starters in the Phillies lineup combined to go 1-for-16. Bryson Stott was the lone offensive bright spot as he recorded his third three-hit game of the season. Per the Phillies, Stott is now tied with Paul Goldschmidt and Joey Meneses for fifth in the National League with 21 multi-hit games.
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