Velocity bump hints vintage Nola just around corner

PHILADELPHIA -- Aaron Nola has never been obsessed about his velocity.

Or at least, he has never been one to publicly express its importance to him. It is not his game, after all. But in Tuesday night’s 8-4 victory over the Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park, Nola’s fastball had more life than it had in previous starts this season. It might be an encouraging sign for Nola and the Phillies’ rotation, both of which need to be better if the Phils expect to keep pace with the best in the National League.

“He just kind of felt settled in, I guess,” Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos said. “Even seeing him before the game, he just kind of had that ambiance about him that he had last year. Sometimes it takes a minute to get settled into the season. But there definitely was a little more freedom from his windup to his release.”

Nola allowed two runs in six innings against the Blue Jays. He allowed five hits and two walks. He struck out six. Notably, his four-seam fastball averaged a season-high 93 mph -- up 1.4 mph from his season average, 2 mph from a season-low 91 mph in last week’s start against the Dodgers in Los Angeles and 0.2 mph from his 2022 season average.

“It felt pretty good coming out of my hand,” Nola said. “I felt behind [the ball]. I felt on top of it. My fingers felt on top of my fastball and on my changeup, and my curveball for the most part, too. Delivery-wise, it felt better than it has.”

Nola’s velocity has been a constant topic of conversation this season, if for no other reason than it seemed to partially explain why he had not been as effective as he had in the past. Nola, who posted a 7.04 ERA after his first three starts, entered Tuesday with a 4.64 ERA and a 92 ERA+, meaning he had performed eight percentage points below league average.

Nola had posted no lower than a 115 ERA+ in his past five non-pandemic shortened seasons.

Quietly, however, he has a 3.24 ERA in his last five starts. Four of the five have been quality starts.

“I feel good,” Nola said. “Body feels good. As long as I keep those little goals going, which is getting the leadoff guy out and getting ahead of hitters and keeping the walks down, keep the home runs down, I think better things will happen.”

Nola is not vintage Nola yet. He's walked eight batters in 33 1/3 innings in his past five starts. He walked only 29 batters in 205 innings last season.

But small steps are important ones.

Nola allowed a run in the third inning to give Toronto a 1-0 lead, but Castellanos’ two-run homer in the fourth put the Phillies up, 2-1. Nola allowed a leadoff homer to Bo Bichette in the sixth to cut the Phillies' lead to 3-2. He then walked Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and allowed an infield single to Daulton Varsho to put runners on first and second and no outs.

One bad inning has been hurting the Phillies all season. But this time Nola held. He got Matt Chapman to ground into a fielder’s choice. He struck out Brandon Belt looking and got Alejandro Kirk to ground out to end the inning.

Nola had that ambiance again as he returned to the dugout.

“He’s a very calm individual,” Castellanos said. “He’ll spend an hour and 15 minutes laying on a lacrosse ball loosening up his IT bands and stuff. He enjoys traveling around the country in a van, right? So I feel when he has that peace within he’s able to compete the way that he wants. … He’s one of our horses, so if he can go deep into games and eat up those innings, just be himself, it really helps the Phillies.”