Aaron Nola shows up, but offense falls short as Braves sweep Phillies

The question has buzzed around Aaron Nola like a pesky gnat for awhile now. Is he a legit staff ace? Or just a really good, but not quite elite, starter?

The buzz began to seem more like nagging tinnitus after player and team failed to negotiate a contract extension this spring that would have prevented their former No. 1 draft choice from testing free agency this winter.

And it may have reached a fever pitch this week, especially after the Phillies lost the series opener to the Braves on Tuesday to fall nine games behind first-place Atlanta in the National League East and then were rained out on Wednesday.

That left it up to Nola, who arrived at Citizens Bank Park Thursday lugging a back pack and a 4.66 earned run average, to seize back the momentum and keep the Phillies from trailing by a psychologically-daunting double digits nearly two weeks before the Fourth of July fireworks explode over the Ben Franklin Bridge.

In the sudsy debates in the region’s tap rooms, the manufactured outrage of the sports talk radio, the water cooler conversations in the Center Center skyscrapers, a consensus emerged: Nola needed to pitch his best game of the season.

Even though he stepped up with six shutout innings, what was left of the crowd of 39,570 booed lustily after what turned to be a 5-1 Braves win in 10 ended, a collective raspberry directed at an offense that managed just four singles all afternoon and a costly fielding play by leftfielder Kyle Schwarber in extra innings.

Even though the Phillies had won six straight and 12 of 14 coming into the Braves series, Atlanta had been just as hot. The Phillies hadn’t been able to pick up ground, adding an additional jolt of urgency to the proceedings.

“We could have one both these games, really,” said manager Rob Thomson when asked what disappointed him most about the abbreviated series.

Braves starter Bryce Elder (5-1, 2.40) breezed through the Phillies lineup for seven innings. Both bullpens kept the scoreless tie intact, sending the game into overtime. And that’s when everything went sideways.

Sam Hillyard entered the game as the ghost runner on second facing righthander Yunior Marte. He went to third on an infield out and scored the game’s first run when Michael Harris II singled to left past a drawn-up infield.

Ronald Acuna Jr. singled. Harris went to third and Acuna stole second. But Marte struck out Ozzie Albies and seemed to be out of the inning when Austin Riley followed with a sinking line drive to left.

Except that Schwarber, to put it bluntly, dropped the ball. Harris scored. Acuna scored. Marcell Ozuna followed with a homer.

“He hung a breaking ball to Ozuna, but Ozuna never should have come to the plate,” Thomson said.

Agreed Schwarber: “It’s very frustrating. It’s a play I should make. Plain and simple. I don’t really know how or why (it happened), but I’ve got to catch it. It’s not on Marte. It’s not on anyone else. The game’s on me. When you make a play that you feel cost (your team) the game it doesn’t feel good. But I’m going to work on it and be better for it.

“I feel like if I catch that ball, we extend that game or we could win it in the 10th.”

As it turned out, the Phillies did come back to score once but, obviously, that doesn’t necessarily mean they would have if they’d only been down by a run, For one thing, the Braves pitch selection likely would have been different. Or, Raisel Igelesias, who pitched the ninth and has 10 saves, could have come back to try to nail it down.

What got a lot of postgame attention was a bookkeeping item. The official scorer awarded Riley with a hit, meaning Marte was charged with four additional earned runs. It wouldn’t be surprising if that’s changed.

None of that would have mattered if the Phillies lineup hadn’t scored three or fewer runs for the fourth straight game. Bryce Harper doesn’t have a home run in his last 22 games, encompassing 84 at bats.

Thomson continues to insist he’s confident his offense will soon begin to deliver consistent power again.

“Just track record. That’s all I can base it off,” he said. “At some point, it’s going to happen.”

At the start of the day, the focus on whether Nola could step up and pitch like an ace. He did but, this time, that wasn’t enough.

“That’s baseball, man,” he said. “That’s a good team we just played. They fouled a bunch of pitches off, especially with two strikes. They make you work.”

As a result, the Phillies will have to work even harder if they have any thoughts of catching the Braves this season.