Another Aaron Nola goes to complete waste for Phillies in loss to Braves

The Philadelphia Phillies failed to take advantage of Aaron Nola on the mound once again during Monday night’s 7-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves.

Normally, the Philadelphia Phillies having Aaron Nola on the mound is supposed to give the team a major advantage against opponents since the pitcher has been working his way into being one of the top players at his position over the years.

Even towards the end of July and beginning of August, Nola seemed to be heating up at the right time for the Phillies after the team won six of his seven starts, although Nola was only credited with four of those wins.

With Philadelphia in need of every win possible during this final stretch just to have a fighting shot at one of the Wild Card spots in the National League, Monday’s game against the Atlanta Braves was supposed to give the Phillies a major advantage with Nola on the mound.

As Phillies fans learned, that was far from the case after the Braves wasted little time roughing Nola up by scoring four runs over the first two innings before going on to defeat Philadelphia 7-2, dropping the team back three games in the Wild Card race.

On the game, Nola finished with seven strikeouts to go along with the four earned runs in six innings of action, leaving the Phillies with plenty of extra pressure heading into Tuesday’s contest.

Anything short of Philadelphia reaching the playoffs will be viewed as a complete bust for the 2019 season, and while there’s still hope with a few weeks remaining in the regular season, it’s still frustrating to even be in this position.

To top the frustration off, Nola went from heating up to cooling off real fast after the Phillies have lost each of his last four starts, two of which have been credited to him.

One can only imagine how different the current playoff standings would have been if Philadelphia had managed to win one or two of those games in which Nola started, but hopefully the Phillies can find a way to win his final starts of 2019.

Maybe if this happens, Philadelphia will have a fighting chance at earning one of those Wild Card spots, although it’s certainly not going to be easy when looking at their remaining schedule on top of all the other teams they’re competing with in the National League.