Phillies

Aaron Nola Has a 2.91 ERA Over His Last Four Starts

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 14th, 2026 · 9:32 AM EDT

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The Phillies beat the Twins 7-1 in the Field of Dreams game. It was fun to see Schwarbombs into the cornfield and experience all of the nostalgia from the Iowa setting. It felt a little bit like the recent All-Star Game in terms of highlighting baseball history while giving off strong “America’s Pastime” vibes.

As for more tangible things that influence the Phillies’ chances of finally getting John Middleton’s trophy back, Aaron Nola had another good start:

Aaron Nola’s Last 4 Starts:

5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
5 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K
5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 9 K

2.91 ERA.

— Luke Arcaini (@ArcainiLuke) August 14, 2026

This is a nice run from Nola, who entered July with a 6.04 ERA and couldn’t get through five innings without giving up a handful of runs and the customary dinger(s).

Part of the reason for this recent success is the effectiveness of the knuckle curve, which he is actually throwing only 27.1% of the time during these last four games. But the velocity is slightly up (78.9 mph) and the whiff rate on this pitch has increased all the way from 40.8% to 51.9%, so he’s getting guys to swing and miss more than half the time they go after this pitch.

Nola has nearly doubled his changeup usage over the same time frame, which is what helped Andrew Painter in his last start. Noles was throwing the changeup 14.2% of the time previously and is now at 25.5% during this four-game run.

The sinker has been scaled back to 11.5% from 19.5%.

As for the fastball, the four-seamer’s velocity remains steady at 92.3 mph, but he’s been mixing and matching with better results alongside those offspeed pitches:

It wasn’t too long ago that Nola and Painter starts were considered lost causes, or Doc Rivers “scheduled losses” perhaps. Both guys have pitched well, though, in recent outings and that’s a positive turn of events.