Phillies flop against the Dodgers, 9-0, in a loss Aaron Nola would love to forget

By the top of the ninth inning on Saturday, Kody Clemens found himself pitching against the Dodgers.

It wasn’t the first time, either. Clemens — a first baseman — has taken the mound against Los Angeles twice before, on the Phillies’ trip to Dodger Stadium early last month.

It’s not the precedent you want to set.

Clemens gave the Phillies three quick outs, and received “Kody” chants as he walked off the mound unscathed. The Phillies had steadily built positive momentum over their previous six games, winning all six, the most recent of those being a walk-off win Friday night against a tough Dodgers team.

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But that streak was snapped on Saturday, in a deflating 9-0 loss to Los Angeles at Citizens Bank Park.

There was plenty that went wrong in this one. The Phillies combined for just three hits against the Dodgers’ pitching staff — despite jumping on starter Bobby Miller in the second inning. Trea Turner hit a leadoff single, J.T. Realmuto struck out, Bryson Stott doubled, Brandon Marsh struck out, and Kody Clemens walked to load the bases for Edmundo Sosa. But Sosa grounded out.

They tried to rally in the seventh inning with two outs but to no avail. Clemens hit a double, Sosa singled, and Kyle Schwarber lined out to left fielder David Peralta.

That was the most damage the Phillies would do, offensively.

To make things worse, starter Aaron Nola was not nearly as sharp as he was in his last start on Monday, when he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning for the fourth time in his career. On Saturday, Nola retired the first eight batters he faced, but then allowed a double and two RBI singles to the next three batters.

From there on, Nola’s struggles continued. He allowed a 415-foot home run to Peralta in the top of the fourth — marking his 10th straight start in which he’s allowed a home run — and his first walk of the day in the fifth.

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The outing became even more frustrating in the sixth inning. Presumably to slow the game down, Nola has been throwing baseballs out — and asking for new ones — which resets the clock. He’s been doing it all season. In the sixth, after Nola took a new ball from Realmuto — and asked for a new one — third base umpire Bill Miller indicated that he would not stop the pitch clock if Nola kept throwing baseballs out.

Manager Rob Thomson came out of the dugout with some choice words for Miller. It was unclear at the time if Nola had broken a rule or not — but Thomson thought he hadn’t. It got heated, and Miller threw Thomson out. As he walked off the field, he got a standing ovation from the crowd.

“They weren’t going to let Nola switch out the baseball because they thought he was stalling for time,” Thomson said. “And there is part of a rule — part of the rule is that you’re not supposed to delay. Or you could have a violation. But it doesn’t specifically talk about throwing baseballs out.

“Baseballs are all different. They feel different in a pitcher’s hand. And sometimes they get slick in the bags after innings, after six or seven innings, umpires sweat, too, so, they get a little slick. So, I was upset that they wouldn’t let him switch out the baseball.”

After the game, in a pool report, Miller said that he felt Nola was trying to delay the game.

“We have regulations with the pitch clock,” Miller said. “Obviously it’s very sensitive — when the pitch clock goes off, and whether or not people are going to circumvent the rules that are in place. Nola did a good job the first two to three innings. And then, as the game went on, he started to throw more and more balls out. Where we felt he was trying to reset the clock. Which is an attempt to circumvent the pitch clock regulations.”

The rule is up to the umpire’s judgment.

“[In the sixth inning], he caught the ball,” Miller said. “He took two steps, he turned around, and said I need a new ball. He never felt the ball until he took it out and wanted another one.”

Miller said he has only made this call with one other pitcher: San Francisco Giants pitcher Alex Cobb.

“We’ve had an issue before,” Miller said. “With a pitcher with the San Francisco Giants, Cobb, who was doing the same exact thing: throwing balls out to reset the clock, so they could get more time to get their pitch off.”

Nola said it was the first time in his career that an umpire has warned him about this.

“I guess they didn’t want me to throw the ball away,” Nola said. “I was feeling it and was walking back to the mound. The clock had started. I wanted to throw the ball [out] to get an extra second. Guess they didn’t like that. It is what it is.

“The balls are slick. I need to rub them up. Just like in every game. Sometimes they’re chalky, sometimes they’re slick, sometimes the seams are bigger than others, sometimes they’re smaller. I don’t know how you’re supposed to slow the clock down when you’re in the windup. Because we don’t get a step off. There’s time where you need to rub the baseball to get a good grip on it.”

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Nola retook the mound in the seventh but was unable to exit the inning. He allowed a pair of base hits and a walkto allow the Dodgers’ fourth run and put runners on first and second. Jeff Hoffman entered in relief of Nola and hit a batter, induced a groundout, allowed a walk, gave up a three-run homer to J.D. Martinez, and a double, before inducing another groundout to end the inning.

In the end, Nola allowed six earned runs in 6⅓ innings — which is the most he’s allowed in a game all season.

“I made some bad pitches; it got away from you in the seventh,” Nola said. “A couple of walks. A couple of balls in the middle of the plate.”