Aaron Nola happy to feel ‘back to normal' originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
NEW YORK – As he sat at his locker at Citi Field, his practice jersey soaked with sweat and the moisture dripping down his face, Aaron Nola could only smile. That’s how good life is for him right now as he has finally made it back from two injuries that took away almost three months of his season.
His first start back, on August 17th didn’t go quite as planned for the veteran right-hander, as he allowed seven hits and six earned runs in just 2 1/3 inning of work in Washington. Facing the same Nationals team six days later, Nola was more himself as he held the Nationals to five hits and two earned runs in his six innings of a 6-4 Phillies win. He’ll be back on the mound Thursday at Citizens Bank Park when the Phillies host the Atlanta Braves.
“I feel good. Normal soreness,” Nola said. “It’s good to get to the routine or throwing and running and working out a little bit. Throwing bullpens again, normally. Overall, it went pretty smooth. It took a little while, but, yeah, back to normal.
“Being on the injured list is obviously tough. It was longer than I thought it was going to be. The ankle started feeling good then the rib came up so it was kind of a 2-on-1 bang right there. Something I’ve never had with the rib. Never had anything in that section, rib or lat or anything right there. It was new and different. It took me a little bit to get loose once I started throwing. I had to learn to throw soft out in the outfield when I started throwing. That’s something that I hadn’t done in a while cause usually, I feel pretty good and I can just fire it right off the bat and get into throwing pretty easily. But it was tough sitting around and watching. But the guys played awesome. I loved watching. They were playing really good baseball. Pitchers were dominating. It was fun watching our starting rotation go out and dominate.”
The emotions of being back to normal are one thing. But the emotions Nola went through rose even more when the news of teammate Zack Wheeler’s season-ending venous thoracic outlet syndrome was released.
“It’s good to be back, man. It really is,” Nola said. “I’m blessed to be able to get on that mound again. I just took in the stadium when I was walking into the dugout from center field. I never had that long off during the season and I want to cherish every moment as I can as a Phillie.
“Not to bring up Wheeler, but that’s a tough loss for us. You never know what can pop up. He’s having one of the best seasons he’s ever had. Something crazy pops up and it knocks him out for the year. After that I kind of sat back and told myself to cherish every single moment because you never know if your season will end. It was a blessing that my injury wasn’t one that knocked me out for a real long period of time so I’m grateful for that. It’s just good to be back and be healthy and be able to pitch again.”
Nick Castellanos sits in series opener vs. Mets
The outfield for the Phillies on Monday will consist of Brandon Marsh in left, Harrison Bader in center and Max Kepler in right against right-handed pitcher Kodai Senga. Sunday, Rob Thomson had said Nick Castellanos paid him a visit to find out the game-plan for the series. It didn’t include him in Game 1.
“He just wanted to know what the plan was moving forward,” Thomson said. “I laid it out for him and he was good. He just wanted to know, that’s all.”
Bader has been hitting well of late, as he’s gone four for his last six with a couple of walks.
“That’s why I’m trying to mix and match and keep a rhythm and keep them going,” Thomson said of the outfield platooning. “It’s difficult. It’s difficult to match people up. But so far, so good. I think Bades is doing great. I really like him. I like the presence about him, a little bit of swagger. And (defensively) he gets great jumps. I mean great jumps. It’s really impressive. He may not have the speed of Rojas but I would say the jumps are as good.”
The same but different
Just like last season, the Phillies are 76-54 after 130 games. The offensive numbers across the board are almost identical. But that’s really where the likeness stops, according to Thomson.
“For the most part we’ve been pretty consistent,” he said. “There’s times where we haven’t hit or haven’t pitched well. The Houston series (back in late June) where we just didn’t hit and that’s good pitching. I think overall we’ve played really well.
“We got off to such a hot start last year, it was just kind of ridiculous, and you can’t really maintain that hot streak over 162. So, consequently after the All-Star break we went into a slide. I think overall this team this year has been more consistent than last year. Last year we were hot in the beginning and then we cooled off. I think we sort of leveled out the peaks and valleys this year a little bit better.”
