Philadelphia Phillies need to figure out their Aaron Nola problem

For the second start in a row, the Philadelphia Phillies watched Aaron Nola get roughed up against the Washington Nationals.

Back on Opening Day, Aaron Nola seemed to pick right up where he left off last season with the Philadelphia Phillies after pitching a gem against the Atlanta Braves, lasting six innings while striking out eight batter, and allowing just one run.

Most importantly, the Phillies went on to win the game over the Braves 10-4 to start off the new season in one of the best ways possible by showing early signs of looking like a top contender in the National League.

Of course, it’s only April, and plenty can change from now until the end of September, but at least Philadelphia has to love the way this team is looking for the most part over the first two weeks of the 2019 season.

With that being said, if the Phillies are in fact going to be a serious contender in the National League throughout the regular season, Nola will need to figure out a way to get out of this funk the star pitcher has found himself in over the last two contests.

Almost one week after pitching a game to forget against the Washington Nationals in which he only lasted three innings, and gave up six earned runs, Nola was in the perfect position for revenge against his NL East rivals.

Through five innings, Nola and the Phillies seemed to be on their way to a win by hanging on to a 6-1 lead, but unfortunately things took a turn for the worse from there.

Even with Philadelphia hanging on to a 6-5 lead after the seventh inning, Edubray Ramos would go on to give up a run in the top of the ninth inning before the Nationals scored four more runs in extras to secure the 10-6 win.

All of a sudden, Nola had gone from looking like he was going to bounce back with a strong win to losing a second game in a row, bumping his earned run total over the previous two games to 10.

Does this mean the Phillies should be hitting the panic button over how their star pitcher in Nola has looked over his last two contests? Not exactly, but Philadelphia better figure out a way to help him get out of his funk.

Tuesday’s tough loss to Washington was the perfect example that it doesn’t matter how hot the bats are looking since Philadelphia is going to need strong outings from their pitching rotation as well, especially when it comes to Nola.

Nola has made quite the name for himself over the last few seasons as a top pitcher in the league, but until he gets back on track with a few solid performances, the concerns are going to continue to be there for Phillies fans.