PHILADELPHIA _ It is nights like Friday _ when Aaron Nola dazzled for seven innings in a 4-1 win over the Mets _ that allow it to feel possible that the right-hander could do what was once thought to be farfetched.
Lead the Phillies to the playoffs? Well, maybe. But how about win a Cy Young?
The ballots for the National League's Cy Young Award will be cast in seven weeks and it has been accepted that this season's race has narrowed between Max Scherzer of the Nationals and Jacob deGrom of the Mets. But those voters will now be hard pressed to ignore Nola.
He struck out 12 batters Friday, allowed three hits and one run to lower his ERA to 2.24. He recorded 17 of his 21 outs via either strikeout or flyout. There was not much hard contact. He used his fastball, curveball, and change-up for 21 swing-and-misses, his most since May. His signature curveball was on-point as he used it for seven swinging strikes.
It is almost a folklore now that when the Phillies drafted Nola, no one expected the first-round pick to develop into a Cy Young candidate. He was a pitcher who could zoom through the minors and fill out a major-league rotation. He's proving in his fourth season that he can sit atop one.
Between Scherzer and deGrom, Nola has the third best ERA, second most wins, third-best walk rate, and the third-best WHIP. Nola may not be better than those two pitchers, but his numbers are not far off from the horses at the front of the Cy Young race. Nola has put together his season in the midst of his first playoff race. Perhaps that will curry favor when the ballots are casted. If not, Nola still has plenty of time and a handful of starts to sway voters.
Nola's numbers are on par with the two horses at the front of the race. But Nola has compiled his numbers in the heat of a playoff race. Perhaps that will count for something when the ballots are casted. Nola still has plenty of time to sway voters.
Friday was his fifth double-digit strikeout game of the season. Just four other Phillies pitchers _ Cliff Lee, Curt Schilling, Steve Carlton, and Jim Bunning _ have recorded five double-digit strikeout games in a season. Nola joined elite company. He may not lift a Cy Young Award this offseason, but make no mistake that Nola has emerged this season as one of baseball's premier pitchers.
"I'm not really as concerned about how much national exposure or attention Aaron Nola gets," Gabe Kapler said. "To us, he's one of the best pitchers in baseball. That hasn't changed based on his performance this year. That's how we felt about him in spring training. And then this season's performance and his track record he's developed is just kind of proof of that concept. It's an indication that a lot of the people that thought he was one of the better pitchers in baseball had something there."
The Phillies scored three times in the first inning, providing Nola with all the support he would need. Nola is now 13-0 this season when receiving at least three runs of support. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a two-run double with a first-pitch swing and Nick Williams then jumped on the next pitch to drive Cabrera in with a single to center.
The Phillies, an offense that typically tends to grind out long at-bats, built a quick lead by attacking Noah Syndergaard with early swings. And once they reached base, it seemed like everyone was running. Jorge Alfaro recorded his first steal in the majors, Maikel Franco stole his first base in more than two years, and even Carlos Santana tried to steal as the Phils took advantage of Syndergaard's long delivery to get extra jumps.
Friday was Nola's 25th start of the season. He has the lowest ERA of a Phillies pitcher through 25 starts since Chris Short in 1964. The Phillies have won 18 of Nola's starts. They are two weeks from starting September in a playoff race and it would be hard to imagine the Phillies being in position to fight without Nola. An elite pitcher has made the Phillies a division contender. And that elite pitcher may just be a Cy Young.
