Phillies’ seventh straight home win moves them past Braves atop the NL East originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Rob Thomson wasn’t wrong when he said his starting pitchers have already logged plenty of innings this season. Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Ranger Suárez entered Friday night ranked among the 15 with the heaviest workloads in all of baseball.
The question is whether the Phillies manager’s traditional prescription – extra rest – is producing unexpected side effects.
Wheeler had an extra day off before his start Wednesday in Anaheim, struggled and had to leave the game after five innings. He later openly expressed his opinion that being outside of his normal schedule had left him out of control.
Nola had two additional days off before facing the Giants to begin a four-game series Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies won 4-3, but the starter left after four innings, largely because he needed a staggering 46 pitches to get through the second and allowed two runs on four walks and a double to the San Francisco second baseman. , Theiro Estrada.
That was close enough to the upper limit for the Phillies to allow one pitcher to pitch in a single inning in which right-hander Jose Ruiz began warming up.
To put this in perspective, Nola went nearly three years (80 starts between September 17, 2020 and August 16, 2023) without walking more than three batters in a game.
He has averaged 2.4 walks per nine innings in his career.
“Four walks in one inning. That’s pretty brutal to me,” he said.
The Phillies have openly stated that their goal this season is to end the Braves’ streak of six National League East titles. There are still five months to play but, for what it’s worth, Friday night’s win coupled with Atlanta’s loss at Dodger Stadium puts them a half-game ahead of the Braves.
It’s the first time the Phillies are ahead of Atlanta in the standings after the first week of the season since 2021. With Philadelphia at 22-11 and the Braves at 20-10, the rivals currently have the same .667 winning percentage.
Nola admitted that he “wasn’t feeling very synchronized” and didn’t deny that the extra rest could have been a factor. “But as the game went on, I started to feel a little better,” he said. “I just tried to slow things down.”
The turning point came with two outs and the bases loaded when he got Giants designated hitter Jorge Soler to jump. If Soler had arrived, Thomson said, that very well could have been his last hitter. And with Gregory Soto unavailable (he should be ready to play 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 it,” Nola said. “I’m glad I wasn’t swept away right there and that I was able to minimize the damage. Overall, I was lucky to keep the game to two runs.”
Nola allowed singles to left fielder Michael Conforto and catcher Tom Murphy to lead off the third, but calmed down after that to retire the next five batters he faced, three of them due to strikeouts.
Five relievers took the win from there, allowing only one run. That happened when Orion Kerkering loaded the bases with no outs, but he was able to avoid a big inning when Soler grounded into a double play and Conforto lined a line to the base of the right field wall.
The Phillies’ next rival is Suárez. Who, as you may have already guessed, will start Saturday with two extra days of rest.
We have too many starting pitchers, no manager ever said. And that includes Thomson, even as he tries to figure out how to fit six starters (LHPs Wheeler, Nolas, Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull plus LHPs Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez) into the five spots of a traditional rotation.
Organizations always talk about never having too many pitchers, fully aware that they can be a fragile commodity and that a key injury or two can turn surplus into deficit almost overnight.
Still, Thomson admitted he is struggling to figure out the best way to deploy his available arms. “This creates very, very difficult decisions. “It is the most difficult decision I have ever had to make,” he stated.
The most obvious stalemate occurred because Turnbull was supposed to be a stopgap solution when Walker went on the injured list with a swollen shoulder during spring training. However, in six starts he is 2-0, 1.67. At the same time, Walker isn’t going to 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 has openly expressed his desire to pitch every five days; The Phillies have Thursday off. And his wishes will influence what happens in the future. “Absolutely,” confirmed the manager.
The fact that Nola wasn’t at his best Friday night doesn’t make that conundrum any easier to solve.
So it will be the Giants RHP Keaton Winn (3-3, 3.18) vs. NL Pitcher of the Month for April Suarez (5-0, 1.32) on Saturday at 6:05 p.m., RHP Logan Webb (3-2, 2.98) vs. Walker (1-0, 8.53) on Sunday at 7:10 pm on ESPN and TBA vs. Sánchez (1-3, 3.68) in the series final on 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 having him start against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park, but there are no easy answers after that.