For Aaron Nola, the wait continues.

Incredibly, Nola has now gone 351 days since he last picked up a win. In fact, it has been 351 days since the Phillies have even won a game started by Nola. That’s a stretch spanning nine starts.

Insane. 

It was August 20 of last season when Nola improved to 12-3 after seven strong innings in a 3-2 win over the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He would proceed to lose his final four decisions down the stretch and his first of this season. 

At times, Nola battled inconsistency, but this latest setback was unequivocally not his fault.

His line: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 12 K

And he did it against what is arguably the sport’s most potent lineup.

And then Joe Girardi turned to the bullpen. I know I don’t need to explain what happened next, but I will because I enjoy a good horror story.

How about this progression from Tommy Hunter: single, single, double, hit batter, single, shower

Going back to the first game of the doubleheader, by the time Hunter mercifully walked off the mound, the Phillies’ bullpen had allowed 11 of the 14 batters it faced to reach base. The team also trailed by two runs, and while Adam Morgan kept things right there, the damage was done.

Even bad bullpens can dodge the occasional bullet or two. This bullpen can’t even manage that right now.

At least it doesn’t waste any time. In six games this season, the Phils’ first relievers out of the bullpen have combined to last just 3.1 innings. They have yielded 14 earned runs. I mentioned this to Girardi after the game. The exchange:

Crossing Broad: The first guys that you’ve gone to out of the pen this season in six games have combined to give up 14 earned runs. At what point, and how do you and Bryan (Price) kind of get together and say we’ve got to reset these guys, there may just be a little bit of negative momentum right now? How do you view this bullpen and its performance to this point?

Girardi: Well Bob, we had a quick spring training. And then you had basically a seven day layoff where no one really pitches. I think it’s really hard to evaluate exactly what we’re going to get moving forward. And, obviously, we want them to turnaround. I believe they will turn it around, but they just haven’t had consistent work, and it’s just hard to be sharp. And we’re playing teams that have been playing everyday. And that’s something that we know we have to deal with, but I believe we’re going to get better. I know Bryan believes we’re going to get better, and we’ll get it done.

Again, it’s hard to be overly critical of the Phillies’ performance given what this team has endured to start the season. I understand where Girardi is coming from. At the same time, these aren’t exactly elite caliber guys that are getting off to shaky starts. Before the week-long shutdown, there were legitimate concerns about several members of this bullpen, the reality is that they have done nothing to quiet the concerns.

No doubt, we can also talk about an offense that produced just a single run and only three hits. There is plenty of blame to go up and down the lineup, but I mean, it’s hard to draw your attention to a pothole when there’s an oil tanker truck set ablaze on the side of the road.

Let’s get to the rest of the observations from the game two loss.

Rhys Hoskins’ Struggles

Rhys Hoskins just can’t quite seem to get things going. Hoskins had an RBI single in game one, but he still looks uncomfortable at the plate. Hoskins, who is batting just .158 with a .618 OPS through six games, is a hitter that’s made several tweaks to his hands and lower-half in the offseason and in summer camp, with little to show for it so far.

There’s two ways to look at his performance right now:

  • Positive outlook: Hoskins is a patient hitter, one who’s coming off a bad second half in 2019. He’s simply feeling his way through the early part of a disjointed schedule. His a few good swings away from turning things around.
  • Negative outlook: Hoskins looked lost a season ago, and his recent tweaks are symptomatic of a hitter lacking confidence.

I’m not ready to make any definitive conclusions, but he doesn’t seem confident in staying back on pitches. He appears too anxious to open the lower half and get the hands involved.

Yeah, Hoskins gets fooled here, but he gets fooled, in part, because everything is too quick right now:

The Phillies desperately need him to work through it. His on-base skills provide some value, but Joe Girardi may need to seriously consider moving him down in the order while he attempts to figure things out.

The Summer Breeze

Aaron Nola had it going on Wednesday night. Check out the snap on this:

And the Greg Maddux-like run on this two-seamer:

It’s not hard to see why Nola recorded his 13th career double-digit strikeout game and tied a career-best mark with 12 total punch outs. He racked up the dozen strikeouts, in part, by generating 17 swings and misses.

He just had a different gear tonight, and his recent numbers prove it.

Dating back to the start of the 2019 season, Nola generated 17 swinging strikes on just two other occasions over a span of 35 starts.

You want more? Have some more:

 

Little Things

I love clipping homers, talking exit velo, writing words like boom and piss-missile, but the little things get me going, too.

That’s why I loved Adam Haseley’s leadoff at-bat tonight. He quickly gets himself behind in the count, 0-2.

Then, he goes to work: ball, foul, ball, ball, foul, foul, ground ball the other way (against a shift) for a base-hit. Exit velo? That would be 72 mph.

While the Phillies failed to score after putting two men on with nobody out (surprise!), it was a pro-level at-bat by the 24-year-old Haseley, the type of at-bat he has been giving this team frequently in the early going.

 

Andrew Knapp, Doing Andrew Knapp Things

There may be no Phillies player in recent memory that takes more shit from the fans than Andrew Knapp.

Do me a favor, check out the replies to this *sorta* pro-Knapp tweet from summer camp:

And listen, after Knapp hit .213 with a .642 OPS a season ago, I can’t say that some of this hate is completely unjustified.

Still, we’re talking about a backup catcher. If you’re relying on that guy to produce in big situations, which the Phillies did on more than a few occasions a season ago, I’m thinking it may not be entirely his fault.

Anyway, Knapp got the Phillies on the board with their first and only run in game two with a bloop single, and then he busted his ass down to second on the throw to the plate. I’m not leading the charge for Knapp to get more than eight or nine starts behind the dish this year, but his teammates like him, and I don’t think he is as bad as he played in 2019.

Not sure I can say the same for some of those guys out in the bullpen right now.