Nola's curve ineffective as struggles continue

MILWAUKEE – Joe Girardi spoke confidently Tuesday afternoon about Aaron Nola’s chance to beat the Brewers.

“People just want to erase what he did in August,” he said. “He was pretty damn good in August, right? If I’m a betting man, I’m betting on the man that was really, really good in August.”

Nola allowed three runs in five innings in a 10-0 loss to the Brewers on Tuesday night at American Family Field. The Phillies did not lose because of Nola. He did not help the cause, but the Phils managed only four hits in seven scoreless innings against Brewers left-hander Eric Lauer, and the bullpen allowed seven runs in three innings to turn the game into a rout. Still, Nola continues to feel the heat as he labors through the most challenging season of his career, considering personal and team expectations.

The Phillies are 2 1/2 games behind the Braves in the National League East with 24 games to play. Nola is 7-8 with a 4.57 ERA.

“All season, for the most part, it’s one inning that’s erupted on me,” Nola said. “I thought I made some OK pitches. They just found holes. It’s baseball.”

Girardi cited Nola’s August before the game. He had a 4.28 ERA in five starts last month, although he posted a 3.22 ERA in his final four. He pitched more than 5 1/3 innings only once, however.

Nola needed 92 pitches to get through five innings on Tuesday, so Girardi ended his night there. Nola’s third inning sunk him, continuing a season-long trend of failing to put away batters with two strikes and struggling with runners in scoring position.

“They battled me,” Nola said.

Nola allowed a leadoff single to Lorenzo Cain on a 1-2 curveball. Nola’s curve hasn’t been as effective in recent outings. In his last start last week in Washington, he allowed home runs to Lane Thomas and Juan Soto on two-strike curveballs. It was the first time in his career that he allowed two home runs in a game on his curveball. Cain got caught stealing, but Lauer hit a 2-2 curveball up the middle. Freddy Galvis could not make the play. It could have been ruled an error, but it was scored an infield single.

“We don’t make the play up the middle and it leads to three runs,” Girardi said.

Kolten Wong hit a 1-2 sinker into the right-field corner for a double to put runners on first and second. Eduardo Escobar capped a nine-pitch at-bat by dropping a 2-2 curveball down the left-field line for a ground-rule double.

“I felt like I threw 15 pitches to Escobar,” Nola said.

Two runs scored. Christian Yelich laced a 3-2 changeup up the middle to score Escobar to make it 3-0.

Five consecutive hits with two strikes, including three on curveballs.

“It’s just making a pitch is what it is,” Girardi said. “It’s making a pitch. He’s left some balls up with two strikes that hurt him. But I thought he threw the ball all right, I did. We don’t make the play in that inning and there would be two outs with nobody on and maybe it’s a totally different inning and he goes through six or seven tonight, but we didn’t.”

Opponents entered the game batting .171 with two strikes against Nola. They batted a combined .149 with two strikes against him from 2015-20. Opponents entered the game batting .283 with runners in scoring position against him, which ranked 21st out of 89 pitchers (minimum 100 plate appearances with RISP). They batted a combined .222 from 2015-20, which ranked 100th out of 111 pitchers (min. 500 plate appearances with RISP).

Nola seems to be searching for ways to change his luck with only a few starts remaining in the season. He threw eight cutters on Tuesday, which is a pitch he threw only 29 times in his previous 28 starts, according to Statcast.

“I’ve been throwing it in bullpens and stuff,” he said. “It’s feeling pretty good. I thought, 'why not?'”