Philadelphia Phillies: Aaron Nola, Vince Velasquez heating up at right time

Thanks to some impressive pitching as of late by Aaron Nola and Vince Velasquez, the Philadelphia Phillies are in great shape when it comes to the National League standings.

To say this season has been a bit of a roller coaster ride would be a huge understatement for the Philadelphia Phillies when considering they look like a contender one week, only to end up struggling the next.

However, when taking all things into consideration, the most important factor is that Gabe Kapler‘s team is only a half-game back of the Atlanta Braves for first place in the NL East at the moment, with part of the reason due to their impressive rotation.

Expectations were high for Philadelphia when they ended up winning the Jake Arrieta sweepstakes late in spring training, but believe it or not, guys like Aaron Nola and Vince Velasquez have been coming up big as well as of late.

Two days after Nola set a career high by striking out 12 batters in a 4-2 win over the San Francisco Giants, Velasquez would go on to do the same by matching that number on Thursday when the Phillies defeated the Giants 6-3 on Thursday.

Thanks to these strong performances, Philadelphia is in amazing shape heading into their weekend series against the New York Mets, and if all goes well, they could even end up alone in first place come Sunday. Obviously, the Phillies will take the smart approach by focusing on one game at a time, but with Arrieta taking the mound on Friday along with seeing how well Nola and Velasquez have been playing, this team is playing with a ton of confidence at the moment.

While Nola is 5-1 over his last six contests and has 19 strikeouts over his previous two games, Velasquez is slowly turning things around after a rough start to the year by winning each of his last two games. Even after allowing three early runs against San Francisco on Thursday, Velasquez deserves plenty of credit for keeping his cool by going on to strikeout 12 batters as previously mentioned in six innings of work.

As much as the young talent has played a big factor in this team winning four games in a row, the Phillies know it’s their rotation that has been the difference maker lately, and hopefully this stellar play continues over the next couple of months. Entering the season, Philadelphia felt pretty confident in guys like Nola and Velasquez elevating their games to a whole new level, but actually seeing it take place as of late has been amazing to witness.

When looking at how things have played out over the last couple of seasons, the Phillies and their fans have certainly enjoyed this hot start to the 2018 season, and if they can keep it over the next few months, maybe it will even be good enough to earn a playoff spot.

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Of course, if there’s going to be any chance of that happening, it will fall on the shoulders of guys like Nola and Velasquez continuing to play at a high level. Based off their recent performances, the Phillies should feel confident about the chances of this happening.