As soon as the ball left Michael Conforto’s bat, Aaron Nola knew it was gone. He looked down at the ground instead of watching it carry 397 feet over the right-field wall.
Nola was hurt by homers again in the Phillies’ 3-1 loss to the Dodgers on Saturday, with all three runs he allowed coming on the long ball: a two-run homer from Kiké Hernández in the second and Conforto’s solo shot in the sixth.
It was still a quality start from Nola, with three earned runs across six innings. But he didn’t feel his sharpest. His fastball was down a tick in velocity, and he had difficulty commanding it.
“Ball was up today. I struggled to get the fastball down in the zone, especially my four-seam,” Nola said. “So they took some good pitches, but I made some good pitches when I needed to with some guys on base. But other than that, kind of off today.”
Home runs have been a bit of a trend across the Phillies’ rotation. In fact, all 13 runs allowed by Phillies starters so far this season have come on homers. Nola has been responsible for eight of those runs through two starts.
But in both starts, he also didn’t receive much run support. On Saturday, the Phillies only mustered four hits, two of which came in the first inning.
It seemed like they were poised to jump on Japanese rookie Roki Sasaki early, with Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner stringing together singles to lead off the first. Schwarber advanced from first to third on Turner’s hit and scored on an RBI groundout from Alec Bohm for a 1-0 lead.
But following Turner’s single, Sasaki retired nine consecutive Phillies. The 23-year-old only had 4 ⅔ innings of major league baseball experience before Saturday, and had given up nine walks in his first two appearances.
But Sasaki didn’t issue a walk on Saturday until Harper drew one to lead off the fourth. Harper was stranded at first, however, after consecutive first-pitch flyouts from Bohm and Max Kepler, and a strikeout from Nick Castellanos.
“I thought that their guy was pretty good. He threw more strikes than he did in the first two games that he pitched,” manager Rob Thomson said.
The Phillies had difficulty with Sasaki’s splitter, whiffing on it five times and chasing it out of the zone 30% of the time.
“It’s not a pitch you see all the time over here,” Turner said. “I think more and more guys are throwing it, but just the amount of velocity he can take off of it and how much it drops, you can obviously see that on TV, but being in the box, it’s not something you see all the time.”
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Sasaki was lifted for lefty Anthony Banda in the fifth after allowing the first two runners to reach base, and Schwarber nearly tied the game with a 101 mph rocket to right field. Teoscar Hernández made the catch, but as J.T. Realmuto tagged up at third base, Hernández caught Bryson Stott diving back to first for a double play to end the inning.
“I was stealing,” Stott said. “So I heard the bat, I looked, saw it, stopped, turned around, and everything that had to go perfect went perfect, and just how it goes.”
Joe Ross kept the Dodgers at bay for two innings after taking over for Nola in the seventh. He retired all six Dodgers he faced.
Edmundo Sosa pinch-hit for Brandon Marsh in the eighth to try to provide a jolt to the offense. He struck out and remained in the game at center field. Sosa, a utility infielder, spent time in the outfield this spring to try to increase his versatility. He made two putouts in the ninth as Tanner Banks pitched a scoreless inning.
“The ball will always find you,” Thomson said. “He got good jumps, good reactions, routes were good.”
Dodgers closer Tanner Scott only needed three pitches for the bottom of the ninth. Harper led off with an infield single, bringing Bohm to the plate as the tying run, but he grounded into a double play to erase the runner. Kepler flew out to end the game.
