Philadelphia Phillies losing streak when Aaron Nola pitches must end

Aaron Nola opened the season on the mound for the Philadelphia Phillies and won the game with a six-inning performance that included four earned runs. It wasn’t even considered a quality start and yet it’s the single game accounting for his one win on the season.

Now 1-4 through eight appearances this year, Nola has been the victim of some bad outings but also some tough luck. He took a no-decision on April 24 despite throwing seven innings of one-hit ball against the Milwaukee Brewers. Versus the New York Mets on May 5, he allowed only one run in seven innings only for the bullpen to collapse. The same thing happened again on May 15 against the Los Angeles Dodgers in another solid performance from the longtime Phillies starter.

Nola carries a solid 3.64 ERA on the season. That has been overlooked because this team simply cannot win when he takes the mound.

The Philadelphia Phillies are 1-7 when Aaron Nola pitches this season and that needs to end.

Nola has been far from perfect. He didn’t even get through the fourth inning in his second outing. Earlier this month, the Seattle Mariners handed him his most recent loss in an underwhelming performance.

But not every start of his has been a dud. Frequently, pitchers get lucky and actually win a game they didn’t deserve to. The exact opposite is happening for Nola this year. Despite the backing of an incredible offense, the bullpen is ruining what should have been a far more productive start to the year for Nola.

Meanwhile, teammate Ranger Suarez is finding all of the four-leaf clovers. Through his first seven starts, the team is 6-1 and he has a personal record of 4-1. He has only gone beyond six innings once all year and even escaped with no-decisions in outings where he didn’t even make it through the fifth inning.

The win statistic is pretty outdated for starting pitchers considering how early many exit. Nonetheless, for the Phillies to not even come away victorious with a late rally in Nola’s starts and hold strong whenever Suarez is on the bump is a little mysterious. The two have nearly identical ERAs with Nola besting him in nearly every other statistic—if not all of them.

The Phillies owe it to their Opening Day starter to find a win for him. They get their next shot this weekend when he is scheduled to face the Dodgers again.