Aaron Nola opens up on his ‘inconsistent’ season, his admiration of Phillies fans and more

ATLANTA — Aaron Nola likes pitching in front of Phillies fans. This might come as a surprise to some, given the vitriol he has received over the years. He is polarizing, in a similar way to Rhys Hoskins. He can strike out seven and give up three home runs in the same outing. But nevertheless, he likes the fans’ passion.

“They show up because they expect us to win. They want us to perform. And we all get that,” Nola said Friday. “I like playing for them. They hold you to a standard. They expect you to win, and so do we. You’d rather have a fan base like that, rather than a fan base that doesn’t care.”

Some have pointed to Trea Turner as a player who is emblematic of the Phillies’ struggles over their first 50 games, but Nola shares that brunt, too. He characterized his first 11 starts as “inconsistent.” Some days he feels poorly and has great results. Other days, he feels great and has poor results.

On April 28, in Houston, he went eight innings, allowing one earned run and no walks with six strikeouts. Thursday night in Atlanta, he went six innings, allowing five earned runs and two walks with seven strikeouts. He allowed three home runs — the most he has allowed in a game since July 18, 2019. There are a lot of factors at play. Nola induces a lot of ground balls, and the Phillies defense has not been stellar thus far. But he takes ownership of his struggles. He is disappointed in the results.

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“Not great,” Nola said of his first 11 starts. “Some good games, some bad games. A bumpy road — good and bad and good and bad. Inconsistent is the word for it. Getting the ball out of the ballpark has hurt me this year, as we saw last night. Too many home runs. It’d be one thing if they were solos, but I feel like half of them are not solos.”

Thursday’s start against the Braves was particularly frustrating and not just because of the three home runs. Nola takes pride in not giving free passes, and he gave up two against Atlanta. His fastball command was shaky. He feels like he might have been trying to do too much, overthinking on the mound.

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But after nine years in the big leagues, he has learned not to get too high or too low. It was the way he was taught to pitch by his father, A.J., and his brother, Austin. He sees it as a competitive advantage to not tip his hand to the other team. Unlike pitchers like reliever Matt Strahm, who yell and pump their fists after moments of frustration or joy, you rarely see Nola show emotion on the mound.

But that doesn’t mean he’s not affected by what happens in a game, good or bad. It doesn’t mean that he’s not holding himself to the standard the fans are holding him to. And it certainly doesn’t mean he doesn’t care.

“I grew up not showing emotion in games,” he said. “I was taught that. If anybody is saying anything that I don’t care, I do care. I don’t show emotion because that’s part of it. I was never raised like that. It’s not my personality.

“I was always told not to give the other team the upper hand of showing emotion. And that’s how I do it. I’m competitive internally. It’s definitely not because I don’t care. Good game, bad game, there’s no chance that I’m saying I don’t care that that happened. Of course you care. That’s why we’re here. We have a job just like everybody else has a job. It’s like somebody having a bad day at work. Internally, they care.”

Nola sees that the fans care, too. It’s one of the reasons he likes playing in Philadelphia. Of course, fans can take their passion to an extreme, which is why Nola deleted social media off his phone a few years ago, and rarely checks it. But the good outweighs the bad. He points to last year’s postseason as an example of how impactful the fans can be.

“I like that they’re passionate,” he said. “I’d rather have a fan base that’s passionate than not. Especially getting to the postseason last year — that was the coolest experience that I’ve ever had. Every game. It was addicting. Even when I wasn’t pitching. Because of the atmosphere. The energy. The winning is pure. Nothing else matters excepts winning that game.

“I had a great seat to all of that. And I appreciate it so much, because I came up in 2015 when we weren’t that good. We were rebuilding. To see this organization make those little steps to get there — that makes it really cool to be a part of.

“At the end of the day it boils down to winning. Doing your job and winning. Obviously, there’s going to be bumps in the road throughout a season. You’re not going to be hot all year. There’s going to be tough times and fun times, but I try to embrace the tough times because it makes the good times way sweeter. I try to learn from the struggles. Learn from what you did wrong or didn’t do as well and capitalize on it the next time you pitch.”

The Phillies made a minor transaction on Friday, claiming outfielder Cal Stevenson off waivers from the San Francisco Giants and optioning him to triple-A Lehigh Valley. To make room for Stevenson on the roster, right-handed pitcher Noah Song was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Stevenson has hit .222/.356/.292 between two triple-A teams this season. He makes good swing decisions — and has 248 career minor-league walks to show for it. He can play in center field if needed, and has above average speed.

“He’s a versatile player, he can play all three outfield positions,” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowksi. “He’s a guy we’ve liked throughout the years. He makes contact. Runs well. He’s hit in the minor leagues, but he hasn’t hit much at the big league level. He’s got good strike zone command.

“He’s a really good defender. And we have a roster spot, so you try to take advantage of those things when they come up. We actually tried to acquire him when he moved last time, from Oakland to San Francisco.”

Dombrowski said that Song being moved to the 60-day injured list is just procedural, since the pitcher has been on the injured list for 60 days already.

“He’s doing good,” Dombrowski said of Song. “He’s been throwing some batting practices. Throwing to hitters. He’s taking some strides forward.”