Phillie’s seventh straight home win pushes them past Braves atop NL East originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Rob Thomson wasn’t wrong when he said his starting pitchers have already logged a lot of innings this season. Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suarez all entered the top 15 heaviest workloads in all of baseball on Friday night.
The question is whether the Phillies manager’s traditional baseball prescription – extra rest – has unexpected side effects.
Wheeler was given an extra day off before his start Wednesday in Anaheim, worked hard and had to leave the game after five innings. Afterwards, he was outspoken in his opinion that being out of his normal schedule had gotten him out of trouble.
Nola had another two days off before taking on the Giants to kick off a four-game series at Citizens Bank Park on Friday night. The Phillies won 4-3, but the starter was gone after four innings, largely because he needed a whopping 46 pitches to get through the second, allowing two runs on four walks and a double to second-place Theiro Estrada baseman from San Francisco.
That was creeping close enough to the upper limit that the Phillies would allow a pitcher to pitch in one inning, so righthander Jose Ruiz started warming up.
To put this in perspective, Nola went almost three years – 80 starts between September 17, 2020 and August 16, 2023 – without issuing more than three walks in a game.
He averaged 2.4 walks per nine innings during his career.
“Four walks in an inning. That’s pretty cruel to me,” he said.
The Phillies have openly stated that their goal this season is to end the Braves streak of National League East titles at six. There are still five months to play, but for what it’s worth, Friday night’s win combined with Atlanta’s loss at Dodger Stadium puts them a half-game ahead of the Braves.
It marks the first time since 2021 that the Phillies are ahead of Atlanta in the standings after the first week of the season. With Philadelphia at 22-11 and the Braves at 20-10, the rivals currently have the same winning percentage of .667.
Nola admitted that he “wasn’t feeling too in sync” and didn’t deny that the extra rest could have been a factor. “But as the match went on, I started to feel a little better,” he said. “I was just trying to slow things down.”
The turning point came with two outs and the bases loaded when he popped out Giants DH Jorge Soler. If Soler had reached base, Thomson said, it very well could have been his last batter. And with Gregory Soto unavailable (he should be ready Saturday), that would have put a lot of pressure on the bullpen to cover the final 7 1/3 innings.
“That wouldn’t have been a good situation, so I’m glad I got out of that,” Nola said. “I’m glad I wasn’t pulled there and was able to keep the damage to a minimum. All in all I was lucky to keep the game to two runs.”
Nola allowed leadoff singles to left fielder Michael Conforto and catcher Tom Murphy to open the third, but then settled down and retired the next five batters he faced, three of them with strikeouts.
Five relievers then took the ball home and allowed just one run. That came when Orion Kerkering loaded the bases with no one out, but avoided a big inning when Soler grounded into a double play and Conforto lined to the base of the right wall.
The next player for the Phillies is Suarez. Who, you guessed it, starts Saturday with two extra days of rest.
We have too much starting pitching, no manager ever said. And that includes Thomson, even as he tries to figure out how to fit six starters (RHPs Wheeler, Nolas, Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull plus LHPs Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez) into the five slots of a traditional rotation.
Organizations always talk about never pitching too much, fully aware that it can be a fragile asset and that a few key injuries can turn the surplus into a deficit almost overnight.
Still, Thomson admitted he’s having trouble figuring out the best way to deploy his available weapons. “It makes for very, very difficult decisions. As difficult a decision as I have had to make,” he said.
The most obvious logjam has occurred because Turnbull had to be a stopgap when Walker went on the IL during spring training with an inflamed shoulder. However, in six starts he is 2-0, 1.67. At the same time, Walker won’t lose his role due to injury, especially after winning 15 games last season, the first of a four-year, $72 million contract.
Adding to the difficulty is the fact that Opening Day starter Wheeler was outspoken about wanting to pitch every fifth day; the Phillies are off on Thursday. And his wishes will play a role in what happens in the future. “Absolutely,” the manager confirmed.
The fact that Nola was not at his best on Friday evening does not make the mystery any easier.
So it will be Giants RHP Keaton Winn (3-3, 3.18) vs. NL Pitcher of the Month for April Suarez (5-0, 1.32) Saturday at 6:05 PM, RHP Logan Webb (3-2, 2.98) vs. Walker (1-0, 8.53) Sunday at 7:10 PM on ESPN and TBA vs. Sanchez (1-3, 3.68) in the series finale Monday at 4:10 p.m.
Thomson has promised to reveal his answer to this riddle on Saturday. It seems likely that the Phillies will accommodate Wheeler by starting him against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, but there are no easy answers after that.
