It wasn’t death by a thousand cuts. It was one inning. Five batters in, Aaron Nola had walked one, hit another, surrendered a pair of singles, and then watched Isaac Collins lift a three-run homer that landed in the right-field seats. The scoreboard glared 5–0 before an out was recorded, and the Phillies spent the rest of the night trying to claw their way back in a game they were never really in.
That’s been the story of too many of Nola’s outings this season. He stuck around for four innings, giving up six runs in all, but the damage was already cemented in the opening frame. For a pitcher in the second year of a seven-year, $172 million contract, nights like this only magnify the scrutiny.
Milwaukee didn’t need much more after that. José Quintana, the 36-year-old lefty with a track record of steadiness, scattered seven hits and three runs across 6⅓ innings. He struck out six, walked three, and left with the kind of line managers dream about in September. His work was plenty for a Brewers team that padded its division lead to six games over the Cubs and now boasts the best record in the National League at 86–54.
The Phillies had their moments. Trea Turner pushed a run across with an RBI single in the fifth. Weston Wilson, who earlier misjudged a ball in left field that let Brice Turang’s two-run double fall in, crushed a 444-foot homer in the seventh to make it 6–3. But that was as close as Philadelphia came. Jared Koenig closed the door in the ninth for his first save, sending the Phillies to 80–59 on the season, still 5½ games up on the Mets in the East but limping away from Milwaukee with questions still unanswered.
The irony is that the Phillies had won all three of Nola’s starts since his return from the injured list on August 17, even though he had allowed six, two, and four earned runs in those outings. The offense covered him then. It couldn’t this time.
Which brings the focus back to the longest-tenured Phillie. Nola has worn red pinstripes since 2015, endured the lean years, pitched the October games, and signed on for seven more seasons last winter. But this year has been disjointed from the start: three months lost to an ankle sprain and a rib fracture, followed by an ERA that now sits at 6.78.
There’s still time—four or so turns left in the regular season. But the calendar is shrinking. The Phillies don’t need glimpses of their $172 million right-hander. They need stability. They need reliability. They need Aaron Nola to look like Aaron Nola. And they need it starting with his next turn against the Mets.
Quotable
“I've just got to stay healthy and keep on working,” Nola told MLB.com. “I’ve got to limit the big innings, no question about it. I've got to stop giving up so many runs, and [start] being on the attack mode and making better pitches.”
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