‘Different look’ for Aaron Nola pays off with six scoreless innings in 1-0 win over Marlins

MIAMI — Before Aaron Nola uncorked even one of his signature breaking pitches here Monday night, the Phillies threw a curveball with the lineup.

Behind the plate: Garrett Stubbs.

Hey, why not? Nola got hit hard in his two previous starts. And although J.T. Realmuto has since returned from the injured list, the veteran right-hander always worked well with Stubbs, back in the majors as the Phillies’ third catcher and in his assigned seat next to Nola on the team charter.

Maybe it should be a permanent combination.

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Following Stubbs’ curveball-heavy pitch-calling, and with an assist from his throwing arm, Nola dazzled for six walk-free innings and made Bryce Harper’s early homer hold up in a 1-0 victory over the Marlins to clinch a winning four-game series and a pleasant flight home.

“We’re next to each other on the plane, so we talk a lot just about pitching and baseball and catching and stuff,” Nola said. “We’ve got a good relationship — as a battery, too. So, it definitely helps."

Nola scattered five hits, all singles. And Stubbs erased two of them by throwing out Jakob Marsee in the third inning and Otto López in the fourth when both tried to swipe second base.

And so, Mattingly Magic continued. The Phillies are 6-1 since interim manager Don Mattingly replaced deposed Rob Thomson, with a six-game homestand against the Athletics and Rockies set to begin Tuesday night.

But for as smart as Mattingly looked in pairing up Nola and Stubbs — “I just want to give Noles a little different look and feel back there,” he said before the game — the biggest reason for the Phillies’ uptick is starting pitching.

Consider the last spin through the rotation:

Add it up, and that’s eight runs in the last 37 innings for a 1.95 ERA. The starters combined for 45 strikeouts and only eight walks. Neither Luzardo nor Nola walked a batter in the last two games against the Marlins.

It’s a winning recipe.

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“I think you know, I’ve said it for a long time: Starting pitching wins championships, and we’ve got the starters to do that,” said Harper, who had three hits, including a homer on a sweeper from Marlins starter Jansen Junk. “When our starters are going and they’re throwing the ball the right way and doing their job, we’re a tough team to beat.”

Working on seven days’ rest after the Phillies rearranged the starting rotation, Nola led with his curveball. He threw it 32 times out of 94 pitches. But he mixed four varieties of pitches and put them exactly where he wanted.

The key to it all: “Getting the leadoff hitter out,” said Nola, who retired the first batter in all but one inning. He also threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of 22 batters, mostly worked ahead in the count, and didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until the sixth inning.

“I haven’t been doing my job much this year,” added Nola, who dropped his ERA to 5.06 from 6.03. “I hadn’t been putting them in the best spot to score some runs. I tried to put up as many zeros as possible and limit base runners and damage to give them a chance.”

Said Mattingly: “We were talking about [Greg] Maddux and the way he pitched, and that was a master-class at changing speeds, keeping guys off-balance, doing whatever he had to do. That’s the way you kind of look at Aaron and what he’s capable of doing.”

As a team, the Phillies are playing to their capabilities. Finally.

Beyond the top of the order, notably Kyle Schwarber and Harper, the Phillies’ shortcomings as an offense remain evident, although Bryson Stott, in particular, hit the ball hard against the Marlins. And Mattingly’s lineups haven’t differed all that much from Thomson’s.

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But the starting pitching found its level after a 5.80 ERA through 28 games. And after a 9-19 start that included 10 consecutive losses and left everyone wondering if changes were looming, the Phillies are playing crisper and cleaner, almost freer.

“I think we all were kind of just waiting for that ball to drop, waiting for something to happen,” Harper said. “If Topper was going to get fired or if he wasn’t, it was just kind of, we needed to get over this hump and get through this, whatever that looked like.

“As a team, I think just coming out playing our game, understanding that we didn’t play well the first couple weeks of the season. April’s behind us, so we’ve got to step forward and understand that we’re stacking days and playing better. Just keep it going, stack the days, and be where we need to be at the end.”

If so, the starters will have led them there.

At last, and with help from Stubbs, Nola took his turn.

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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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Previous episodes: Paco Figueroa | Gage Wood | Scott Boras | Brian Barber | Aaron Nola | Justin Crawford | Garrett Stubbs | Kyle Schwarber | Brad Keller | J.T.Realmuto