Aaron Nola chased off the mound by the Red Sox as Phillies get romped in series finale

BOSTON — Aaron Nola had pitched to a 1.80 ERA in his last two starts at Fenway Park, but did not look like his dominant self on Thursday. The Phillies starter allowed four runs on five hits in the second inning, alone. When he walked off the mound with two outs in the fourth, he’d allowed eight runs on 11 hits with two walks, two strikeouts, and one towering three-run home run, en route to a 9-3 Phillies loss.

A few factors could be at play here. Because of the London Series, Nola hadn’t made a start since June 5. He said he felt fine before his outing, but he wouldn’t be the first pitcher to struggle after an international series.

“I tried to get myself prepared and ready to go through that time, and tried to get my body ready and healthy throughout that time,” he said. “The travel was tough and obviously you kind of get tight in certain places, but I felt like I got everything out yesterday, and felt good going into the game today.”

Home plate umpire Alex MacKay also didn’t do Nola any favors. In the fourth inning, with a 3-1 count and two outs, Nola threw a four-seam fastball in the zone, which MacKay called for ball four.

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It’s impossible to know how that inning would’ve turned out if that ball had been called a strike, but what happened next changed the course of the game. David Hamilton hit an RBI single to give the Red Sox a 5-3 lead, and Tyler O’Neil hit the aforementioned three-run moonshot to give them an 8-3 lead.

It wasn’t pretty.

“I was struggling with command, struggling to get the ball down on all my pitches,” Nola said. “The only pitch that was coming down was the changeup, [I] left a few of those up, though. Just bad command.”

Nola threw 90 pitches, of which only 53 were strikes. He allowed a lot of hard contact. Eight of the 11 hits he allowed came off the bat at 100 mph or harder.

“I think he threw one breaking ball in the dirt, and that was in the first inning, and he hung some breaking balls,” said manager Rob Thomson. “The fastball was up. Kind of came back over the plate quite a bit. Just one of those days.”

At first, it looked like the Phillies were going to win in spite of that, but they were unable to muster enough offense. Kyle Schwarber drove in all of their runs with a three-run double to center field in the fourth (that would’ve been a home run in 18 ballparks). It cut Boston’s lead to 4-3.

Whit Merrifield was the only hitter in the starting lineup to record multiple hits on Thursday. The Phillies tallied eight strikeouts and one walk, totaling three runs on 10 hits. The Phillies offense has hit a skid lately, but to his credit, Red Sox starter Tanner Houck did a good job of keeping the lineup off balance.

“His splitter is really good,” said infielder Bryson Stott. “He throws his splitter and his sweeper all the time, but he’s still got 96 in there, too. It’s a weird approach I guess, you go up sitting soft and then he’s got 96 and you’re up sitting [on] 96 and he throws a splitter … he just mixed and matched all game. His numbers are like that for a reason.”

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The bullpen gave another strong performance after Nola exited, but it was to no avail. Orion Kerkering was the only reliever to allow a run. The other three — Gregory Soto, Jeff Hoffman, and José Ruiz — pitched scoreless outings.

It will not get easier for the Phillies from here on out. They leave for Baltimore Thursday night, for a three-game set against the 45-23 Orioles. It’s unclear whether they will have either Trea Turner (left hamstring strain), Brandon Marsh (right hamstring strain), or Kody Clemens (back spams) back by then.

Regardless, it will be a test. But Stott said that they are welcoming the challenge.

“It should be fun,” he said. “We’ve seen they’ve sold it out already. You see where you are, see who you stack up against. You might see them down the road and things like that. I think they’ve got their three guys and we’ve got our three guys going, so should be fun.”