Nola hit hard by Sox: 'I'm going to flush this one pretty quick'

BOSTON -- Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola had never been hit around quite as hard as he was in Thursday night's 9-3 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

"I'm going to flush this one pretty quick," Nola said after allowing a career-high-tying eight earned runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Boston's hitters were all over Nola from the very start. All three balls the Red Sox put in play in the first inning had an exit velocity above 100 mph, though Nola escaped unscathed thanks to an inning-ending double-play ball that was scorched off Rafael Devers' bat at 101.1 mph.

Nola wasn't nearly as fortunate in the second.

After getting Masataka Yoshida to fly out to start the frame, Nola gave up five straight one-out hits, including four doubles -- all four of which had a triple-digit exit velocity. That made Nola the first Phillies pitcher to allow seven batted balls with a 100 mph exit velocity in the first two innings of any game since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

"He hung some breaking balls, fastball was up and came back over the plate quite a bit," manager Rob Thomson said. "Just one of those days."

Nola appeared to settle in with a 1-2-3 third inning in which he induced three quick groundouts, but the Red Sox pounced in the fourth. Nola issued a pair of walks and gave up a two-out RBI single to David Hamilton before serving up a no-doubt 430-foot three-run homer over the Green Monster to Tyler O'Neill.

“That’s a good pitcher on the mound over there," O'Neill said. "Had to give our best stuff against him. … We were finding barrels and hitting the ball hard."

Boston followed with back-to-back singles to end Nola’s night. His final pitch was ripped into right field at 108.4 mph by Yoshida.

All told, Nola allowed a career-high nine batted balls of at least 100 mph. That's also the most allowed by any Phillies pitcher in an outing this season. Along with matching his career high in earned runs, Nola also tied career worsts in hits (11) and extra-base hits (six), while walking two and striking out two.

The eight runs matched Nola's total from his previous five starts combined. He was 4-0 with a 1.53 ERA in those five outings, during which he held opposing hitters to a .133 average.

"Struggling with command, struggling to get the ball down with all my pitches -- just really bad command," Nola said. "I just left some balls up and they didn't miss them."

Nola's forgettable night was just the latest setback in a tough week for the Phillies.

It started on Sunday when they squandered a ninth-inning lead before losing on an unprecedented double play to wrap up their London Series showdown against the Mets.

On Tuesday, the club announced star catcher J.T. Realmuto was undergoing right knee surgery that will sideline him for at least a month. Then, on Wednesday, Cristopher Sánchez turned in one of his worst outings of the season as the Phils blew a four-run lead in an 8-6 loss to the Red Sox.

The Phillies have allowed at least eight runs in back-to-back games for the first time since the first two games of the season, when they were outscored, 21-7, by the Braves.

"It's one series, man," Nola said. "We've been on a pretty good roll. You're bound to lose a series here and there throughout the year -- it's a long season."

It won't get any easier for the Phillies (46-22) on Friday when they open a weekend series in Baltimore, the final stop on a three-city intercontinental road trip. They'll be facing an Orioles team that has won six of its past seven games and has lost only one series since the start of May -- and hasn't dropped a set at Camden Yards since April 26-28.

While the Phillies' fanbase had a decent representation at Fenway Park over the past three days -- “Our fans were into it the whole time, [but] their fans were pretty loud, too,” O’Neill said -- they're expecting an even better contingent for the weekend showdown in Baltimore.

"It should be fun. I saw they've sold it out already," Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott said. "You get to see where you are and see who you stack up against. And obviously, they're in the American League, so you might see them down the road."

Of course, that potential rematch would only come in the World Series. Along those lines, Thomson pointed out this series isn’t just a measuring stick for his own team.

"They're a good club. It's a good test," he said. "And a good test for them, too."