Aaron Nola's Triple-A debut back on June 18th was everything Phillies fans could've hoped for. In five shutout frames, Nola scattered just four hits while striking out seven against the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. In his second start of the season, Nola faced the same Bisons, this time on the road, and while most of his outing had similar results, Buffalo's lineup did break through against the Phillies 2014 first rounder later on in the game.
After setting down the Bisons 1-2-3 in the first, Nola got some support from his team in the second. Russ Canzler led off with a double and Aaron Altherr followed with a single. With Gabriel Lino at the plate, the Pigs executed a perfect double steal, with Canzler stealing home and Altherr taking second. That made it 1-0 Ironpigs.
In the fifth, Canzler struck again, smacking a bases clearing triple to give Lehigh Valley a four run lead. Aaron Altherr hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to extend the lead to 5-0.
After working through the first seven innings rather smoothly, Nola ran into some trouble in the eighth. He gave up three hits to start the inning, one of which was an RBI-single to make it a 5-1 game. Nola induced a double-play to put two outs on the board, but a run scored and he walked his next batter, the last he would face.
With two on and two down, Hector Neris replaced Nola and walked the first hitter he faced to load the bases. Bisons third baseman Matt Hague would make Neris pay for the walk, hitting a two-run double to right to cut the lead to 5-4. Aaron Loewen came in for the final 1 1/3 innings for the Ironpigs and struck out three to seal the victory for Aaron Nola in his second Triple-A start.
The Ironpigs offense was led by Russ Canzler. He went 2-for-3 at the plate with a run scored, a double, triple, three RBI's and a walk.
Nola's final line looked like this: 7.2IP, 6H, 3R, 2ER, BB, 7K, 2.13 ERA (96 pitches, 69 strikes)
In 13 starts this season between Double-A and Triple-A, Nola has only allowed more than two earned runs on four occasions. He's struck out 14 and walked two so far in Triple-A, seven in each of his two starts. Nola's struck out five or more hitters in five of his last seven starts. In that span, he's only walked six.
Nola's next start is likely to come early next week against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Railriders, Triple-A affiliate of the Yankees. He's bound to run into some familiar faces on that team having faced the Trenton Thunder, the Double-A Yankees affiliate, plenty of times when he was with Reading.
Brandon Apter, Publishing Editor for Philliedelphia.com
