Aaron Nola’s shortest career start dooms Phillies in 6-1 loss to Braves

The wounds of a crushing 12-inning loss were still fresh when Joe Girardi was asked if the Phillies had lost the momentum from a five-game winning streak.

“Well, I think momentum is only as good as your starting pitcher the next day,” the manager said after Saturday’s loss.

Well, that starting pitcher -- staff ace Aaron Nola -- threw just 58 pitches on Sunday night in a 6-1 loss to the Braves. The Phillies lost a series to a division rival, started a challenging nine-game road trip by losing two of three at Truist Park, and watched their momentum dry up.

Saturday’s loss stung, but the Phillies at least left the ballpark with the comfort that Nola was pitching Sunday. He threw a clunker. Nola lasted just four innings, allowed five runs on five hits, was tagged by a pair of homers, and threw the fewest pitches in his career.

“I know he’ll be frustrated, but that’s baseball, too,” Girardi said. “Pitchers aren’t going to be perfect. That’s the bottom line. Tonight, he didn’t have his good stuff.”

Nola pitched a shutout earlier this season and struck out 10 batters in his last start. He has allowed three runs or less in six of his seven starts before Sunday, but Sunday was also the fifth time that he failed to pitch past the sixth inning. The Phillies need more consistency from their No. 1 starter.

“You know how tough of a loss it was and of course I put it on me,” Nola said of pitching after Saturday’s crusher. “It was a chance to go out and win a series. I didn’t do that. I didn’t give the guys a good chance to score runs. I’m going to flush this one and move onto D.C.”

He threw 25 pitches in the first inning as the Braves sent seven batters to the plate. Freddie Freeman singled in a run to cap a seven-pitch at-bat, Ozzie Albies tripled in Freeman, and Dansby Swanson jumped on Nola’s first-pitch curveball for a two-run homer. A long first inning set the stage for a short night.

“I never expect to get pulled early,” Nola said. “I know the situation. It was a tough first inning for me, we were down, 5-1, at that point, and we needed to scratch some runs. But it’s just a tough one today.”

“My stuff really wasn’t breaking tonight. I feel like the curveball wasn’t sharp the past few outings.”

The Phillies flew to Atlanta after sweeping Milwaukee, but they now head to Washington after blowing three saves on Saturday night and watching their top starting pitcher get pinch-hit for in the fifth inning.

Nola’s four runs in the first inning came after Andrew McCutchen’s leadoff homer spotted the Phils an early lead. Freeman homered in the third to put the Braves up four.

Freeman has struggled this season as he entered the weekend hitting just .202 with a .758 OPS in the season’s first 30 games. He was held out of Thursday’s lineup for what manager Brian Snitker said was a mental rest. Perhaps that’s all Freeman needed. He homered on Saturday and Sunday and has homered in five of his last six games this season against the Phillies. Freeman is off to a slow start, but not against the Phillies.

The Phillies open a three-game series on Tuesday in Washington before playing three against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. The Nationals have lost five of six and the Phillies will avoid Max Scherzer but face Patrick Corbin. The Blue Jays have a plus-25 run differential and have hit the most homers in the American League this season.

The Phillies are 5-11 this season on the road and the next six games won’t be easy. Their five road wins are tied for the third fewest in baseball.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s a break,” Girardi said. “It seems like all the teams we’re playing are good teams. We love close games, so I would imagine that it would be much the same.”

The Phillies had just one extra-base hit after McCutchen homered on the game’s first pitch. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and McCutchen, who walked in the third, was the only batter to reach base twice. Girardi tried shuffling his lineup as he moved Rhys Hoskins to seventh, but that failed to jolt the offense.

“It’s frustrating, but again, it’s baseball,” Girardi said. “You score 12 one night and sometimes you score one. I think it’s good for us to get an off day where some guys can get off their feet and move into Washington.”

The No. 2-5 hitters -- Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and Alec Bohm -- combined to go 3-for-15. McCutchen’s third-inning walk was followed by a single by Segura, but the rally fizzled. Harper and Realmuto struck out and Bohm grounded out to the catcher. It was the closest the Phils would get to bailing out Nola’s rough first inning.

The Phillies have lost 17 games this season, but none were as difficult as the one they dropped Saturday. Hector Neris blew a two-run lead in the ninth before the Phillies again failed to close it out after taking leads in the 11th and 12th. They opened the series with a convincing win, but whiffed on a chance to win the series on Saturday. And then with Nola on the mound, they dropped the chance to salvage the momentum they brought with them to Atlanta.

“We definitely need to turn it around,” Girardi said. “I think, overall, when you look at the week, we had a pretty good week. But it’s frustrating when you look at what happened Saturday night. You have to put it into a compartment, throw it away, and move on to Washington and go try to win a series there.”