GDT 9/19/19 Philadelphia Phillies (Nola) @ Atlanta Braves (Soroka)

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Segura’s infield single drives in Harper who opened the inning with a double. Segura strained his hamstring on the play and is being replaced by Franco on first.

Last inning for me as I have a 2:30 appointment

[Patchmk88]

And Aaron give a lead off homer in the bottom of the inning. What a damn disappointment he has been down the stretch.

[LoneStarPhan]

Then a single and Nola is lifted. Got no outs in the sixth - Vincent comes on.

Nola 5 IP, 9 hits, 2 walks, 4 K, 5 runs, all earned. Responsible for runner on base.

[Lawman]

According to Matt Gelb on twitter, looks to be a hamstring issue.

[Lawman]

Not a good line. Pitching Nola every 5th day hasn't worked so well, time to re-think this plan for the last 1.5 weeks of the season, I think.

[Philsmania]

I think it is safe to say that Nola is having an down season. If he was a #3 starter, he would be doing just fine. But, by the standards of what he should be--a #1 starter--he is not having a good season.

[LoneStarPhan]

Vincent faces 3, retires 3, Ks 2.

End of six
Braves 5, Phillies 3.

[LoneStarPhan]

Haseley singles on full count pitch.
Bruce pinch hits - first pitch DP grounder.
Hernandez infield single.
Realmuto K.

Both teams now have 9 hits.

[LoneStarPhan]

Phillies score one in the 8th to pull within one.
HBP to Hoskins. Singles by Miller and Morrison load bases. Sac fly by Kingery.

[zambonir]

I'm old enough to remember when Nola's ceiling was #3 starter

[LoneStarPhan]

End of 8 innings:

Phillies 4-11-0
Braves 5-9-0

Morin pitches 7th and 8th. No runs or hits. One walk and one K. Both coming after he retired first five he faced. Bullpen did well so far this afternoon.

[LoneStarPhan]

Proving he is still on the team, Williams pinch ran last inning

[LoneStarPhan]

Pirela strikes out swinging at ball that bounced in the opposite batters box.

Hernandez strikes out in foul tip

Realmuto grounds out to first.

Braves win, 5-4.

[Patchmk88]

Just a complete waste today. Nola with another bad September start in a must win - how many times have we said that?

No big hits in the later innings. Sloppy fielding leading to runs. And more mismanagement by Gabe - you leave our best pinch hitter on the bench?

[julio]

Just a complete waste today. Nola with another bad September start in a must win - how many times have we said that?

Not to be too gloomy, but it's really stretching reality to define today's game as a "must win." The Phillies are not going to win a wild card berth. What happens in the rest of this season's games is pretty much academic. Grasping at straws about theoretical combinations of the Phillies winning out, and other clubs (multiple other clubs) collapsing is just that - grasping at straws.

Probably better to just accept this, rather than getting worked up over the next week or so, as the Phils win some, lose some of what you imagine are "must win" games.

[Patchmk88]

Well if Nola went 3-4 in his last 7 starts they’d be right in the thick of things. The point I was making is that he has not been an ace down the stretch which is disappointing for hopefully big games that come in the future for us.

[mdougherty12]

Well if Nola went 3-4 in his last 7 starts they’d be right in the thick of things. The point I was making is that he has not been an ace down the stretch which is disappointing for hopefully big games that come in the future for us.

That stretch includes:

8/25 - Nola gives up 3 runs in 7 IP, but loses 3-2.
8/30 - Nola gives up 1 run in 6.1 IP, but the pen gets knocked around, losing 11-5
9/14 - Nola gives up 1 run in 7 IP, but loses 2-1

Nola hasn't been lights out down the stretch, but he's pitched better than the team's record shows.

[zambonir]

The must-win games were against Boston at home, and Nola certainly wasn't to blame there.

This is the first time we took a series from Atlanta (and on the road no less) since the season opener. It would have been nice to keep the dream alive (and technically it still is) But the baseball gods giveth (Eflin yesterday), the baseball gods taketh away (Nola).

How Nola pitched this season doesn't tell us anything about how he'll pitch next season, just like last season didn't tell us about this one. Most of us expected him to have a season like Hamels did in 2009 and that's exactly what we got... the really bad parts and the fact that it was still decent overall.

[Philsmania]

Well if Nola went 3-4 in his last 7 starts they’d be right in the thick of things. The point I was making is that he has not been an ace down the stretch which is disappointing for hopefully big games that come in the future for us.

That stretch includes:

8/25 - Nola gives up 3 runs in 7 IP, but loses 3-2.
8/30 - Nola gives up 1 run in 6.1 IP, but the pen gets knocked around, losing 11-5
9/14 - Nola gives up 1 run in 7 IP, but loses 2-1

Nola hasn't been lights out down the stretch, but he's pitched better than the team's record shows.

Eh, he hasn't been good over the course of this six game losing streak in games he's started. 4.87 ERA in 35.1 IP . He's also had three games where he's been knocked around (9/4, 9/9 and today). Yet, his WHIP has been so-so (1.367) but more than his season average (which includes this stretch of games). It appears that most of the guys who've been getting on base against him during this stretch have been scoring.

[andyb]

Nola throws lots of strikes, so he probably will always be susceptible to the HR ball. He has not been awful in this last stretch. It would be better to have another 200 IP guy around him to share the load and make it easier to not skip the 5th starter in the rotation so often. All in all it has been a decent season for Nola. A little worse luck than last year and the realization that he is not quite a Scherzer type in handling a large load of innings.