PHILADELPHIA -- Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged following Monday's Trade Deadline that he was “a little” concerned about the organization’s starting-pitching depth.
By the end of the week, not one but two Phillies starters had exited their outings early due to injury.
Andrew Painter appears to have avoided anything serious with the left hamstring issue that forced him from Wednesday's outing. The Phillies are hoping the same holds true for Aaron Nola.
Nola exited Saturday night's 7-5 extra-innings loss against the Blue Jays with a right knee contusion after being struck by a 104.8 mph comebacker in the sixth inning. X-rays were negative, and the club is hopeful that it once again dodged potential disaster.
“It sounds like he's gonna be fine,” said interim manager Don Mattingly, who added that he expects Nola to make his next start.
Still, it wasn’t the way Nola wanted to end an outing that featured his latest milestone moment.
When Nola struck out Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela with a perfectly placed sinker in the top of the second inning, he became just the seventh active player to join the 2,000-strikeout club. The Philadelphia faithful acknowledged the accomplishment with a standing ovation, prompting a wave and a head nod from the typically stoic Nola.
“That was good, man,” Nola said of the ovation. “It was nice to get it home.”
Just a few innings later, though, he walked off the mound in what seemed to be a significant amount of pain.
Jesús Sánchez led off the sixth by smashing a ball that one-hopped into Nola's right knee, then ricocheted off his left leg and all the way into foul territory along the third-base line.
Nola immediately doubled over in pain before attempting to walk it off around the mound as athletic trainer Joe Rauch and Mattingly rushed out to check on him. The right-hander walked off the mound after trying two warm-up pitches.
“It was just hurting when I pushed off of it on those warm-up throws,” Nola said. “But obviously planning on making my next start, and hope for a good week this week, and it subsides really quick.”
Though it's often overshadowed by his struggles since the start of last season, Nola’s latest milestone was a reminder of just how good he’s been -- and for how long.
Nola reached the milestone in just his 309th career game. Only nine pitchers have joined the 2,000-strikeout club in fewer games -- and it's quite the list:
Fewest games to reach 2,000 strikeouts
1. Randy Johnson 262
2. Clayton Kershaw 277
3. Gerrit Cole 278
4. Yu Darvish 281
T5. Max Scherzer, Nolan Ryan 287
7. Roger Clemens 294
8. Pedro Martinez 300
9. Tom Seaver 305
T10. Aaron Nola, Sam McDowell 309
“I’m happy for him,” Mattingly said. “The guys were talking in the coaching room a little bit about where he falls on the all-time list, and it's pretty impressive when you think about the length of time that it takes to get to that. … It's a lot of strikeouts.”
Perhaps fittingly, Nola's big day came opposite Scherzer, who recorded a milestone strikeout of his own shortly after Nola's departure. Scherzer's strikeout of Kyle Schwarber in the bottom of the sixth was No. 3,516 of his career, moving him past Walter Johnson for sole possession of 10th place on the all-time strikeout list.
“It’s funny to do it pitching against Scherzer,” Nola said. “I’ve got a long way to catch up with him.”
The Phillies quickly put a damper on Scherzer's big moment. Trea Turner and Bryce Harper followed the historic strikeout with back-to-back home runs to tie the game -- and end Scherzer's outing.
“I hate facing my friends. Honestly, I don't like it,” said Turner, who has had some fun with his former teammate in the past. “But I know if he punched me out, he'd definitely let me hear it. So I was trying not to laugh running the bases tonight.”
The Blue Jays ultimately got the last laugh, though.
Despite the Phillies taking the lead with a four-run sixth inning, the Blue Jays rallied to tie the game with two runs off José Alvarado in the eighth. They later won it on Nathan Lukes’ two-run homer in the top of the 11th.
As for Nola, the initial diagnosis is encouraging, particularly for a team that has very little starting pitching depth outside of the big league rotation. His next start, assuming all goes well, lines up for Thursday at the Field of Dreams game in Iowa.
“That’ll be a different experience,” Nola said. “That's going to be pretty cool.”