KANSAS CITY – This was one of those good news/bad news days for the Phillies.
The bad news is they suffered a 5-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Just not enough offense.
The good news is Aaron Nola looked a lot like the old Aaron Nola, the guy who for years gave the Phillies innings and kept them in ballgames.
Nola, who carried a 6.04 ERA into the game, pitched seven innings for the first time this season. He gave up three runs and seven hits, walked none and struck out seven.
The right-hander had only pitched beyond the sixth inning once this season – back on April 3 in his second start of the season when he went 6 1/3 innings in a win at Colorado. He had not thrown a pitch in the sixth inning since May 26, seven starts prior.
The outing was his longest since September 26 of last season when he beat the Minnesota Twins with eight innings of one-run ball.
If Nola can be closer to this guy than the guy who had a 7.33 ERA in his previous five starts, the Phillies will be thrilled. He would ease some of the drop off after the top three spots in the rotation.
“Nola was good,” manager Don Mattingly said. “It was good to see that, good to see him get through seven.
“It’s obviously important that (Nola’s) start turns into a game that you feel like you’re in, you’re not scrambling the whole day. It doesn’t necessarily have to be seven. But if we’re in the game through six, five, seven, whatever that is, then it gives us a lot better shot to be able to put some runs up.”
Nola threw 98 pitches. He changed speeds and got Royals hitters to chase at 42.6 percent of his pitches outside the zone, his second-best mark this season. His curveball was excellent. He got 11 of his 19 swings and misses with the pitch. He got another six with his changeup.
In his between-starts work, Nola focused on his curveball.
“It felt good today,” he said. “I was kind of getting on top of it a little more and getting through it better than I had been in previous starts. A couple popped on me a little, but overall, it was good.
“I just tried to stay through the ball better with the fastball and changeup, tried to throw the changeup more down rather than wiping out to the right side a little bit.”
Nola was at 83 pitches after six innings. Mattingly stuck with him and the pitcher struck out the side in the seventh, all on curveballs. He left the game trailing, 3-2. The Royals pulled away with a pair of runs against reliever Seth Johnson in the eighth.
“Just where he was with his pitch count and his stuff was good,” said Mattingly, explaining his decision to stick with Nola for the seventh. “We’re still down a run where you’re not going to your main guys out there (in the bullpen.) And he had been successful against that part of the batting order. If anyone gets on there, we had a guy ready. But he got his guys and got through it.”
The day did not start off well for Nola. He gave up three hits and two runs in the first inning, but only one run the rest of his time.
“After the first inning, he kept them off balance,” Mattingly said.
“No walks and getting the leadoff man helped me a lot,” Nola admitted.
The Phillies’ bats generated just five hits. Bryson Stott had two of them and scored both of the Phillies runs.
Kansas City rookie right-hander Luinder Avila held the Phils to just three hits and a run in five innings. The Phils wasted a leadoff double by Gabriel Rincones Jr. in the top of second inning. The Phils’ top three hitters – Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper – were a combined 0 for 11 with five strikeouts.
“They kind of strangled the top of our order,” Mattingly said. “Guys at the bottom swung it good. The back end gave us some chances but we just couldn’t get anything going at the top.”
Note. The Phillies selected the contract of outfielder Bryan De La Cruz and optioned him to Triple A Lehigh Valley, where he had been playing. De La Cruz had the right to opt out of his contract and the Phillies chose to add him to the 40-man roster to preserve depth. To make room for De La Cruz, the Phillies designated pitcher Jean Cabrera for assignment.