It’s been lined up for weeks. Aaron Nola vs. Zach Eflin on the Fourth of July. Two longtime Phillies pitchers and best friends going head-to-head for the first time ever to kick off a crucial six-game Florida roadtrip to conclude the first half of the season.
Eflin, as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays, is pitching like an ace. Nola has not, but he looked the part in the Phillies’ 3-1 win against the best team in the American League.
It’s an outing the Phillies needed, but many Phillies observers never expected to get. A typical Aaron Nola season has a rhythm to it. He starts slow in April, bounces back in May, really struggles in June and steps up his game during the hottest months of the year in July and August. Septembers are usually turbulent, but he flipped that narrative last year.
Perhaps Tuesday’s game marked the beginning of “Nola Season.” He tied a career high in strikeouts with 12 and allowed only one run to earn his eighth victory of 2023. He got ahead of 22 of the 29 batters he faced. Eflin, who won all eight of his starts at home this year, allowed two runs on an Alec Bohm double and Bryson Stott single.
The most encouraging sign from Nola’s outing was his ability to navigate traffic on the bases. When opposing lineups are able to get Nola out of the windup and into the stretch this year, they usually do damage.
Heading into today, opponents slashed .199/.245/.366 against Nola with the bases empty. Those numbers go all the way up to .282/.345/.496 with runners on. There were thoughts that something was mechanically off with Nola when he pitches out of the stretch.
It was a different story on Tuesday as Nola showed composure in the toughest spots. Rays hitters went 1-for-10 against Nola with runners on. With one on and one out in the third, Trea Turner made a brutal fielding error to set up first and third for Wander Franco and Luke Raley. He needed only eight pitches to strike out Franco and Raley, two of the most dangerous hitters in the Rays lineup.
Nola took advantage of the Rays’ aggressiveness to keep them off the board through six. Franco led off with a single in the bottom of the sixth, proceeded to steal second easily, but did not advance any further. The next batter Raley popped up a fastball on the second pitch. After Randy Arozarena reached on an infield hit after swinging at a first-pitch curveball, Isaac Parades popped up on a first-pitch fastball and Brandon Lowe struck out on four pitches.
Nola is no stranger to a big inning that derails an entire game. It usually comes in the middle innings, namely the fourth. He came into Tuesday’s game with a 7.56 ERA in the fourth inning this season. He’s susceptible to command slips as he faces the order a second time. He lost Parades on four pitches in the fourth inning of Tuesday’s game, but was able to bounce back and get the final two outs of the inning rather easily.
José Alvarado kept his former team off the board in the eighth after Franco’s home run. Craig Kimbrel, the reigning NL Reliever of the Month, dominated his way to his 13th save of the year.
Tuesday’s win for the Phillies (45-39) was the franchise’s first win against the Rays since April 15, 2018.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Wednesday, July 5 vs. Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field
- 6:40 p.m. Eastern
- TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia, MLB Network (out-of-market only)
- Radio: SportsRadio 94WIP
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