Nola shuts out Marlins in Phils' Game 1 rout

Considering it was only seven innings, Aaron Nola didn’t think his magnificent outing in the Phillies’ 11-0 win over the Marlins in Game 1 of Friday’s doubleheader at Marlins Park should count as his first career complete game.

“It’s good,” he said, “but, you know, it’s not the original [nine-inning] one.”

To the Phillies, though, those seven innings were vital. While the lumber provided by Andrew McCutchen and Rhys Hoskins home runs in the Phillies’ rout of rookie starter Trevor Rogers was nice, the length from Nola was necessary.

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Earlier in the day, the Phillies had made clear that the freak fingernail injury suffered by Zack Wheeler is no minor matter. Wheeler’s status for the remainder of the season is in question as the Phils’ training staff tries to save the nail after it caught on his jeans and ripped from the skin.

That means Philadelphia might need another bullpen day for Monday’s seven-game-series finale with the Fish -- after already employing the ‘pen for Game 2 of Friday’s doubleheader. It’s asking a lot out of a relief corps in danger of posting the worst single-year relief ERA in history.

So along came Nola to ease the burden on the bullpen in Game 1, doing what aces do. In seven scoreless innings, he allowed three hits, no walks and two hit-by-pitches while striking out 10. He improved to 5-3 with a 2.40 ERA.

“I definitely wanted to put it on my back to go as long as I can, especially a game like this, a doubleheader,” he said. “We’ve got a couple [more doubleheaders] coming up. That’s kind of our job as starters. That’s what we want to do is take as much stress off the bullpen as possible.”

Nola had help from his offense early and often.

McCutchen took Rogers deep with a two-run shot in the third inning to get the Phillies on the board, and Jean Segura had a two-run double later in the inning. In the fourth, McCutchen knocked in another run with a single, and Hoskins followed by golfing a low slider for a three-run blast to break the game open and knock Rogers out. The Phils went on to add another pair off reliever Robert Dugger.

The runs were nice, of course. But an outing like Nola’s can have a domino effect on the rest of the weekend -- especially in one so jam-packed with baseball like this Miami marathon is. The Phils and Marlins will have played (at least) 55 innings in roughly 95 hours by the conclusion of play on Monday.

Nola knew all of this going into his start, then rose to the occasion. His knuckle curve was an especially effective weapon, getting whiffs on six of 14 swings and an additional 10 called strikes.

Asked if he would keep the game ball to commemorate going the distance for the first time in his 136th big league start, Nola answered in the affirmative -- but with a catch.

“I might throw with it tomorrow,” he joked.

OK, so maybe it wasn’t a complete game in the truest sense of the term. But it was completely what the Phillies needed.