Aaron Nola: Team Italy’s surprising run in World Baseball Classic was ‘some of the best times I’ve ever had’
Italy ultimately lost to Venezuela, 4-2, in the World Baseball Classic semifinal. But Nola will return to the Phillies with a fastball that has more life and a curveball with more bite.
MIAMI — As a way of summarizing Aaron Nola’s two-start guest spot with Italy’s national baseball team, let’s borrow a phrase fans in his adopted country can appreciate.
Venit, vidit, vicit.
Because Nola came from Phillies camp. He saw lineups filled with major league stars. And he did his part to help Italy conquer, leaving with a one-run lead after four innings in the World Baseball Classic semifinal on Monday night.
As it turned out, though, this wasn’t Julius Caesar at the Battle of Zela. Fueled by a potent, relentless, and frenetic offense, Venezuela ran down Italy’s Cinderella run, scoring three times in the seventh inning for a 4-2 victory that kicked off a party among a partisan — and deafeningly loud — sellout crowd in South Florida.
» READ MORE: Bryce Harper one step away from winning a title after Team USA tops Dominican Republic to reach WBC final
Next up for the Venezuelans: Team USA for the gold medal — yes, they actually receive medals — at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
And for the Italians (or in most cases, Italian Americans)? Only fond memories from what many described as two of the best weeks of their careers. That included Nola, a veteran of 11 major league seasons and four consecutive playoff appearances with the Phillies.
“It was super cool. Super cool,” Nola said. “We had the time of our lives, man. Some of the best times I’ve ever had.”
Say this for Team Italy: It was the darling of the two-week tournament, with an espresso machine in the dugout and contributions up and down the lineup. (Phillies outfield prospect Dante Nori, for instance, went 8-for-20 with two homers and an 1.185 OPS.)
And Nola was more than a pitching ringer, even if his initial interest in competing partially was to use the intensity of the WBC as a testing lab after making adjustments to his throwing program off the worst season of his career.
On that count, Nola was mostly, well, eccellente, especially last Wednesday. He cranked up his fastball to 94.5 mph, uncorked his signature curveball, and dominated Mexico for five scoreless innings to push Italy to the top seed in pool play over the U.S.
Against Venezuela, he wasn’t as sharp. He topped out at 94.1 mph in the first inning, and his velocity declined from there. He got only two swings and misses, and left a curveball up for Eugenio Suárez’s solo homer in the third inning.
Yet, he struck out three batters, all on curveballs. He got longtime nemesis Ronald Acuña Jr. (16-for-52 with four homers and a 1.024 OPS in his career against him) looking at a curveball in the third inning. And he left with a 2-1 lead.
“I kind of felt out of whack today but battled as best as I could,” Nola said. “I tried to get the sinker down later on. Felt like that was kind of the only thing working. I got some ground balls with it and kept the guys in the game as best I could.”
» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber’s presence in the Team USA dugout has kept ‘everybody calm’ during World Baseball Classic run
Nola also threw only 59 pitches, 10 fewer than his previous start. The plan, he said, was not to go more than five innings or 80 pitches. But manager Francisco Cervelli opted for a pitching gambit to compensate for a taxed bullpen.
Rather than starting former Phillies righty Michael Lorenzen against Venezuela and saving Nola for the final, if Italy advanced, Cervelli split the game between them. He used Nola for four innings and tried to get four from Lorenzen. But Jackson Chourio, Acuña, Maikel Garcia, and Luis Arraez notched consecutive singles in the seventh to nearly blow the retractable roof off loanDepot Park.
Regardless, Nola said he was satisfied with the workload in what amounted to his penultimate start before the season.
“Overall, my body and arm feels good,” he said. “I mean, I’m built up.”
Besides, as Nola discovered, the tournament was about something bigger than tuning up for the season.
“There was a lot of people watching — watching in Italy,” he said. “That was a big goal, to bring more baseball to Italy. And we did. I think most of the American guys in this clubhouse don’t really understand what we did for that country.”
Nola hasn’t been to Italy. He qualified to represent the country in the WBC because his great-grandparents on his father’s side were from Italy (the Campania region in the south, to be exact). It was supposed to be a family affair. Nola’s brother, Austin, signed up to play but withdrew after getting hired as the Mariners’ bullpen coach.
But as Nola put it, he left the tournament with two dozen new brothers. And before they went their separate ways, they spent about 90 minutes together in the clubhouse after the game to reflect on the last two weeks.
“Nobody thought we were going to make it this far, and we did,” Nola said. “We’ve got a great group of guys. I love all those guys in there. I’m really glad I played.”
For more reasons than he ever imagined.
Hunter Pence's 368-day stint with the Phillies was a study in extremes. Acquired at the trade deadline in 2011 as the missing right-handed bat for a World Series contender, he got dealt a year later by an underachieving team. And with the Phillies in full-on crisis mode this week, Pence sits down with "Phillies Extra," the Inquirer's baseball podcast, to discuss how quickly a team's fortunes can change. Watch here.
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