Aaron Nola is off to the worst start of his career, but there is plenty of baseball to be played.
The veteran right-hander will aim to secure his first win of the season Wednesday night when the Philadelphia Phillies host the San Francisco Giants in the third contest of their four-game set.
Nola (0-3, 5.51 ERA) allowed two home runs in each of his first two starts — defeats to the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Dodgers. He kept the St. Louis Cardinals in the park Friday, but he walked four batters in his five innings as part of a 2-0 setback.
“He doesn’t have his good fastball yet — with the (strong) finish to it,” Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson said, adding that “he’ll get that as (the weather) warms up, I believe.”
It would help if the Phillies’ bats warmed up during Nola’s starts. They have scored a total of two runs in his three outings.
Philadelphia’s offense generally has been quiet of late, although Tuesday’s contest was a step in the right direction. J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper each homered and drove in two runs in a 6-4 victory over San Francisco.
“I really liked our approach tonight. Four walks. Two strikeouts,” Thomson said. “I thought we played a really good game.”
Max Kepler and Bryson Stott joined Realmuto with two hits for the Phillies, who had lost four of their previous five games. They are trying to avoid dropping their third straight series after winning three consecutive sets to begin the campaign.
“It’s still early, obviously, but you’ve got to keep going,” Harper said. “One game at a time, one inning at a time. But you’ve got to win series and go from there.”
San Francisco, meanwhile, is looking to get back to winning after Tuesday’s defeat. The team had won four of its previous five games, including 10-4 in Monday’s series opener.
Justin Verlander gave up a 3-2 lead on Tuesday, allowing two runs in the sixth inning, including the go-ahead base hit to Alec Bohm. The three-time Cy Young Award winner (0-1) remains without a victory in four starts with the Giants.
“He’s had a lot of success, and that may have played into it some,” San Francisco manager Bob Melvin said of his decision to stick with Verlander in the key spot, “but I wanted to give him a chance to get that last out.”
Left-hander Robbie Ray (3-0, 2.93 ERA) gets the nod for the Giants on Wednesday, coming off a challenging start at Yankee Stadium in which he threw 98 pitches in four innings as part of a rain-shortened game on Friday. The Giants won 9-1. Ray walked four in the wet conditions, giving him nine free passes in 10 innings over his last two starts.
“I felt like the weather itself wasn’t that bad, but then the field conditions started to turn a little bit after the second inning,” said Ray, who has a chance to surpass his victory total from last season, when he went 3-2 in seven starts after returning from Tommy John surgery.
Ray owns a 4-2 record with a 5.32 ERA in eight career starts against the Phillies. Nola is 3-2 with a 6.58 ERA in eight lifetime starts versus the Giants.
–Field Level Media
