Nola remembered how to pitch, the Phillies hit three rockets off Vasquez, take first two games of the series in San Diego
Aaron Nola came into Tuesday night with a 6.01 ERA and I had basically given up on him. I’ve written multiple times this season about how the fastball is dead, the command has disappeared, and the workload from the last eight years has finally caught up with him.
I’ve questioned whether the guy the Phillies are paying $24 million a year still has it. I said his starts felt like scheduled losses. Tuesday night at Petco Park, he made me eat my words and honestly…? Good. I’d rather be wrong about Nola than right.
Six innings. Three hits. Two runs. Zero walks. Five strikeouts. His knuckle curve had a 39 percent whiff rate and he threw it as the first pitch more than any other offering in his mix for the second straight start.
His sinker usage jumped five percentage points above his season average because the Padres stacked right-handed hitters and Nola adjusted accordingly. Of the fastballs put in play, only two were hard-hit. The average exit velocity against his heaters was 76 mph. Seventy-six. Hitters were putting wet noodle swings on his stuff all night.
The only damage was a two-run Machado homer in the fourth that probably shouldn’t have happened. Turner couldn’t make a play on a Sheets grounder with two outs that would have ended the inning. Next pitch, Machado sat on a sinker inside and left the yard. Without the Turner miscue, Nola might have thrown six innings of shutout ball.
He finished the night by punching out Sheets on a three-pitch sequence in the sixth. Two knuckle curve whiffs and a 93.7 mph four-seamer off the plate to end it. A lefty hitter who has been killing Nola all season, struck out on three pitches. That’s the kind of execution we haven’t seen from Nola since 2024.
Is he fixed? I’m not ready to say that after one start against one of the worst offenses in baseball. But the adjustments were real. The knuckle curve emphasis is the right approach. The sinker usage against righties was smart. The zero walks were the biggest thing because when Nola throws strikes and doesn’t give away free bases, the rest of his arsenal plays up. We’ve been saying that all season. Tuesday he finally did it.
The Phillies Hit Three Balls So Hard I’m Surprised They Didn’t Leave Dents in the Seats
Randy Vasquez made one mistake all night and it was throwing cutters to the Phillies’ best hitters. He made that mistake three times. Three solo homers in three consecutive innings, all on cutters or fastballs, all over 109 mph off the bat.
Harper in the first. Low-and-in cutter on a 2-1 count. Golfed a line drive into the right-field seats at 113.5 mph. The hardest ball Harper has hit all season. When Bryce gets a cutter on the inner half and his hands are working, the ball doesn’t just leave the park. It punishes the park. That ball was hit so hard it probably left a bruise on whatever it landed on.
Bryce Harper RING IT
Realmuto in the second. Same location. Low-and-in cutter. Drove it into the first few rows in left at 109.3 mph. His hardest-hit ball of the year and first homer since April 1st.
JT has been grinding through an inconsistent season and that swing looked like the Realmuto who drove the ball with authority in 2023 and 2024. The Phillies need that version of him in the lineup.
JT REALMUTO – RING IT
Turner in the third. This is the one that matters most. A sinking fastball that missed two to three ball widths above the zone. Up and in. A pitch that you don’t swing at. Turner tomahawked it 434 feet into the Western Metal Supply Co. building at 109.1 mph.
He laughed after the game and said “probably shouldn’t have swung at it.” Then he said the adjustments he’s been working on allowed him to stay through the ball and finish his swing.
TREA TURNER – RING IT
Turner has been at .225 for weeks. The pull-side power has been nonexistent. The batting title swing from last year has been missing. That homer was the first sign that the mechanical adjustments he’s been making are starting to produce results. A 434-foot bomb to left on a pitch above the zone is not a lucky swing. That’s a hitter whose timing is coming back.
The Phillies under Mattingly are slashing .268/.351/.464 against fastballs compared to .247/.332/.395 before the managerial change. The BABIP against heaters has jumped 30 points. They’re not just hitting fastballs. They’re destroying them. Three homers over 109 mph off the bat in three innings against a Major League pitcher is the kind of offensive violence this lineup was built to produce.
Marsh Jammed His Finger and This Better Not Be Serious
Brandon Marsh singled in the first, got picked off by Fermin, and jammed his right middle finger on the bag when the tag came down. The finger bent back. He stayed in briefly but the Phillies eventually pulled him and announced a sprain. Further testing coming. Mattingly said day to day.
Marsh is hitting .326 and has been the most consistent hitter on the roster all season. If he misses any significant time, the Phillies are in trouble. Sosa would get more reps in left. Otto Kemp could factor in. Neither of them is Brandon Marsh. The man has been the best pure hitter in the lineup and losing him exposes how paper-thin the depth is the moment anyone goes down.
If this lingers at all, it has to accelerate whatever the front office is planning for the trade deadline. The Phillies need outfield depth regardless of Marsh’s health. Losing their best hitter because of a freak pickoff play only makes the urgency greater.
The Righty-Lefty Thing Is Becoming Embarrassing
21-14 against right-handed starters. 4-12 against lefties. Those are two completely different baseball teams wearing the same uniform. Tuesday’s three-homer explosion against Vasquez, a righty, was the latest evidence that this lineup feasts on right-handed pitching and starves against left-handed pitching.
Every opposing manager in the National League knows it. Every team with a viable lefty starter is circling the Phillies’ series on the calendar and making sure their southpaw gets a start.
The front office has to address this before the deadline. A right-handed bat who can produce against left-handed pitching is the single most important addition this team can make between now and July. The 4-12 record against lefty starters is not a slump. It’s a structural deficiency in the roster that is going to cost them a playoff spot if it doesn’t get fixed.
Five Straight Strong Starts on This Road Trip
Luzardo threw six scoreless Monday. Nola gave them six innings of two-run ball Tuesday. That’s five consecutive quality starts from the rotation since the West Coast trip began. Sanchez, Wheeler, Luzardo, Nola, and Painter have all been contributing at different points over the last three weeks. The rotation is the engine. It has been the engine since Mattingly took over and it hasn’t slowed down.
If Nola’s Tuesday start is the beginning of a real turnaround and not just a one-start blip against a bad offense, the Phillies have five legitimate starters for the first time all season. That changes the ceiling for this team. That makes them a legitimate threat in the Wild Card race instead of a team hanging on by a thread every fifth day when Nola takes the ball.
The Dodgers are next. Three games in Los Angeles starting Wednesday. The toughest series of the trip and one of the toughest remaining on the schedule. If the rotation keeps dealing against that lineup and the bats keep hammering fastballs like they did Tuesday, the Phillies are going to come home from California with real momentum heading into June.
The pitching is carrying this team. The bats showed up Tuesday. Nola looked like himself. Turner hit one 434 feet. The series belongs to the Phillies.
Now go handle the Dodgers.
Join The Chase
Read More
Phillies close out 5-1 home stand with 9-5 win over the White Sox
The Phillies closed out the first homestand of June with…
Andrew Painter throws 42 pitches in the first inning, Phillies lose 6-3 to the White Sox
Andrew Painter’s first warm-up pitch sailed over Realmuto’s head. That…
Phillies beat White Sox 8-6 and that’s 14 runs in 2 days from the 29th-ranked offense in baseball
The Phillies beat the White Sox 8-6 Friday night at…
Okay this isn’t going to be my usual rant, but I have a working theory. Sánchez pitches with such bizarre rhythm and tempo that teammates subconsciously sync to his internal clock. Hitters already say his fastball “gets on them faster” than the radar gun says it should. Maybe the ball isn’t faster — maybe Sánchez makes everyone else process slower. Lizardo used to pitch emotionally and rush himself. Now he suddenly looks calmer, more surgical, almost eerily in control. The wild theory: after months around Sánchez, Lizardo has adopted the same timing patterns, breathing cadence, and hitter-reading instincts. I still and forever hate Lizardo but if I’m correct, he’s taking lessons from Sánchez. AKA LIZARDO IS A FRAUD AND IS JUST COPYING HIS TEAMATE, NO REAL SKILL!