Healthy Nola springs back into top form

PHILADELPHIA >> With every failed spring training pitch thrown by Aaron Nola, and there were more than a few, Pete Mackanin looked not to the scoreboard. He looked to the speed gun.

And that’s when the Phillies’ manager became convinced that the 23-year-old right-hander would be prepared to do what he did Saturday and uncork a quality start in the Phillies’ 17-3 victory over the Washington Nationals.

“I was happy with the velocity he showed in spring training,” Mackanin said. “It meant, hopefully, that his arm was healthy. He didn’t show his typical command of his fastball, but I’m hoping that’s going to come next. The main thing was to see if his arm was healthy and it certainly looks like it.”

If it did in spring training, it also did Saturday when Nola, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2014 draft, went six innings, allowing three runs and seven hits, striking out seven and walking two. He threw 57 of his 89 pitches for strikes.

“A big story for me was Nola,” said Mackanin, after the Phillies snapped a three-game losing streak. “I think he needed a good performance for his own confidence. And I saw a lot of what we were looking for from him. He located his fastball pretty well. He got under a few curveballs, but he pitched a very good game.”

Nola started strongly last season, too, earning a 2.65 ERA after his first 12 starts. But building elbow soreness helped send him into a spiral, and by July that ERA was at 4.78 and he was done for the season. The rest helped, even if Nola’s 0-3 record and 8.38 spring training ERA was not a useful indicator of what was to come.

“So was it his arm?” Mackanin said. “Was it? Who knows what it was? A sophomore jinx? I don’t know what it was. I hope that he’s beyond that.”

Nola was determined Saturday to show that he was.

“Yeah, I’m healthy,” he said. “I know a lot of people are wondering, or have been wondering or are still wondering, but I’m healthy. And I feel great. I just want to stay healthy and maintain that for the remainder of the year.”

While Nola clearly was effective Saturday, the pressure was suppressed by a franchise-record 12-run first inning.

“After we scored all of those runs, I told myself I had to lock it in right now, because as a pitcher it’s pretty easy to kind of zoneout right there because you’ve got so many runs,” Nola said. “I had to tell myself to lock it in. I felt like I did that for the most part.”

He did it, in fact, with style, striking out the side in the top of the second.

“I felt pretty good with the two-seamer moving back on the corner to righties, and to lefties,” Nola said. “I felt like a couple got away from lefties, and later in the count I felt like I executed when I needed to.”

With that, Nola was officially back, healthier for the rest in the second half of last season, off to a 1-0 start.

“We had that lead, and Nola was pitching outstanding,” Tommy Joseph said. “He was pitching quick, throwing strikes. He looked as good tonight as I’ve ever seen him. So that was a very good positive to take away from the game.”