Callers were not happy with Aaron Nola after he was knocked around for five runs on eight hits in Sunday’s loss to the Marlins, and James Seltzer said the veteran righty is among the most “confounding” Philadelphia sports figures ever.
“Nola might be the most confounding athlete ever in Philadelphia, at least in my memory,” Seltzer said. “He’s been top-five in Cy Young twice!”
Nola, a free agent at the end of the season, holds a 4.39 ERA on the year, and was coming off a brilliant 7.1 innings of work in his last start before Sunday, allowing just one run while striking out 12 against a stacked Rays lineup. In his start before that, he was banged for four runs on seven hits in five innings against the mediocre Cubs, and before that, tossed six shutout innings against the mighty Braves.
“It just continues to get more and more fascinating, as to whether or not they’re gonna re-up the guy,” Jon Ritchie said. “He just digs a hole, immediately digs himself out, but then digs another.”
One caller said Nola wouldn’t even be his game three starter in a playoff series at this point, but Joe DeCamara wasn’t ready to go that far.
“I would have him above Taijuan [Walker], but he’s gotta do more to solidify that,” Joe said. “It should be open for discussion in the next three months. I would have Ranger [Suarez] above him, but I wouldn’t have Taujuan above him, especially with what he did last year in the playoffs.”