Aaron Nola stumbles after strong start, but Phillies hit their way to 9-5 win over A’s in opener

Aaron Nola, making his fifth consecutive opening-day start for the Phillies, looked incredibly efficient through six innings Friday. He had allowed just one hit, a solo homer by Chad Pinder, and the Phillies held a five-run lead over the Oakland Athletics. It was the seventh inning that got him, and it got him bad, when Seth Brown hit a three-run homer run to end Nola’s day.

Things only got worse from there. Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins committed one error and rookie third baseman Bryson Stott had a throwing error that enabled another run to score, cutting the Phils’ lead to one. But as they will likely do often this season, the Phillies’ bats bailed them out, adding a run in the seventh inning and two in the eighth for a 9-5 victory.

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Nola allowed four hits, four earned runs, no walks, and seven strikeouts. His line was a bit deceiving, as two of his four hits were home runs, and those accounted for the four earned runs. But what might be more important to Nola’s 2022 season, long term, was that he induced eight groundouts. Nola’s fly ball rate spiked from 27.5% in 2020 to 40.5% in 2021. Keeping the ball on the ground was a priority for him coming into this season, so the fact that he was able to do that early in the game was a positive sign.

“It’s always a priority for me,” Nola said. “I think it comes from staying down in the zone, and executing my pitch. No matter if it’s fastball, changeup, curveball.”

And of course, we saw what happens when the ball doesn’t stay on the ground — two home runs, four earned runs, and a lead that starts to slip away.

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In his first at-bat as a Phillie in the first inning, leadoff man Kyle Schwarber waited patiently at the plate, as six of A’s starter Frankie Montas’ pitches passed him by. On the seventh — a full-count sinker, down in the zone — he struck, launching a ball deep into right-center field, as Citizens Bank Park erupted into raucous applause and the Phillies took a 1-0 lead.

Schwarber flipped his bat, pointed to the dugout, and began his jog around the bases. In the dugout, Matt Vierling slapped Stott with excitement. Rhys Hoskins bounced up and down, letting out a yell before he hugged his teammate. Harper laughed as he walked up to the on-deck circle.

Schwarber was laughing too, as were Hoskins, Stott, and Vierling, and probably every other player and coach and trainer in the Phillies dugout. Schwarber’s 426-foot missile felt almost too perfect to script, coming from a team that now has three of the top 10 players in MLB last season in OPS. A team whose hitting coach, Kevin Long, made T-shirts for them that read “I don’t have a college degree. I just hit baseballs.”

As Schwarber made his way through the dugout, high-fiving his enthusiastic teammates, he sensed that the crowd wasn’t going to settle down any time soon. So he ran up the dugout steps, threw a fist pump in the air, and let out a passionate yell. With only one at-bat into the 2022 season, it felt like this was the beginning of something big.

“It was a little early, a first-inning curtain call,” Schwarber said, “but it was a really exciting moment.”

The Phillies put together 15 at-bats that were five pitches or more on Friday. All of that patience paid off early. In the third inning, Schwarber got on base with a walk, J.T. Realmuto singled, Harper doubled to score Schwarber, and Hoskins singled to score Realmuto and Harper. Those four runs provided a cushion they would need later in the game.

“We want to have constant pressure on that pitcher,” Schwarber said. “Our group message is to keep the pressure on, always. There are going to be times when everyone is on, and that’s when the pressure is going to be on, all the time. But when some guys aren’t going right, you know what, it might be a little bit of a patience thing. You try to grind that guy out, even if you’re not feeling well, you go out there and try to grind that guy out. Maybe he makes a mistake, and if he doesn’t, you know what? You grind it out for the guy behind you, who might be able to swing at the first pitch just because the pitcher had a long at-bat beforehand.”

Montas’ struggles were a stark departure from Nola’s efficiency. The A’s starter was at 67 pitches after three innings, and Oakland had its bullpen warming up. Nola, conversely, was at only 35 pitches at the end of three innings, and tossed 76 for the game.

Next: The Phillies continue their series against the A’s at 4:05 p.m. Saturday (NBC Sports Philadelphia+).