PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Aaron Nola has been an All-Star and a Cy Young candidate. Even with a career ERA of 3.43, many have been unconvinced that he’s an ace.
After Sunday’s record game, the Phillies are putting an end to any skepticism.
“If you look at Nola the last three or four years, I don’t know how you could possibly say he’s not an ace,” catcher J.T. Realmuto said. “He’s been a top 10 pitcher in baseball, so I’m not sure how that would be considered not an ace.”
“You can look at his numbers every year, and it says ace,” added manager Joe Girardi.
The reassurance came fresh after Nola pitched his first nine-inning complete-game shutout in the major leagues — a 2-0 rubber match win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park. Last season, he pitched complete games in seven-inning doubleheaders. He said that didn’t count.
“It was a long time coming,” Nola said on the Phillies Radio Network. “Going into games, I always shoot for throwing a complete game.”
Nola was brilliant. He struck out 10 Cardinals while allowing only two hits. He didn’t record a walk and got all this done in 109 pitches.
As for the past few years Realmuto referred to, Nola had a 3.28 ERA in 2020, 3.87 in 2019 and 2.37 in 2018 — when he was an All-Star and finished third in the National League Cy Young Award voting.
So why is there even a debate about whether the 2014 seventh-overall pick is an ace? Is it the two subpar performances Nola had against the New York Mets in his previous two outings? Is it because he didn’t have riveting success in September? Or, is that he’s not a flame-throwing, beyond-intimating top pitcher like the Mets’ Jacob deGrom, Yankees’ Gerrit Cole or the Nationals’ animated ace Max Scherzer?
“For sure, I hear (talk that I’m not an ace),” Nola said calmly postgame. “And no, it does not bother me.”
“People in the clubhouse and people on the field know that he’s an ace on this team and on other teams,” Realmuto continued. “You just look at the guy’s resume and he gets outs and he shows up consistently, so I’m not really sure where that stipulation comes from, but it’s not from people that know baseball.”
As for Nola’s demeanor, Realmuto said he’s definitely calmer.
“He’s not Max Scherzer out there. He’s not huffing and puffing around the mound, so I can see where that would confuse some people,” he said. “But as far as getting outs and winning baseball games, he does a really good job with that.”
Calm or not, Nola couldn’t help but smile after his victory. And, that wasn’t the only first for Nola that day — he got his first Gatorade bath, compliments of his fellow starting pitchers.