CLEARWATER, Fla. — Aaron Nola’s curveball is his most important pitch.
He turned to it 32.9% of the time last season, the most of anything in his arsenal, and it got hitters to swing and miss 37% of the time. The pitch was in top form in the three scoreless innings Nola tossed in the Phillies’ 5-4 loss to the Rays on Thursday, with all six of his strikeouts coming via his curveball.
“I wanted to command the fastball, both sides of the plate and down, throw some changeups, work the corner,” Nola said. “So it opened up the curveball.”
In Nola’s previous appearance on Saturday, he didn’t throw a single curveball. He instead opted to focus on the rest of his arsenal, particularly his fastball command and his changeup. On Thursday, out of Nola’s 54 total pitches, 15 were curveballs. Nola said catcher J.T. Realmuto called for even more, but he kept shaking him off.
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“My curveball’s one of my better pitches, and I throw it a good bit. I want to use spring training to work on my command,” Nola said. “And I feel like when I do command the fastball, it helps my curveball. It’s harder to command a curveball over and over and over and then try to command the fastball. The other way around is a lot easier.”
The 11 changeups Nola threw were more than usual for him, and he generated three whiffs. The two hits he allowed were singles on his sinker.
The Phillies took a 4-1 lead into the ninth inning, but the Rays scored four unearned runs on reliever Joel Kunhel after an error, a single, a home run, and two walks.
Who stood out: Nick Castellanos and Max Kepler hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning. Kepler went 2-for-3.
Trea Turner went 0-for-3 from the leadoff spot, but made solid contact with a flyout to deep right field in his third plate appearance. Hitting second, Bryce Harper clocked an exit velocity of 110.4 mph with a lineout and later doubled to right field.
Alec Bohm and Realmuto hit singles.
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On the mound: José Alvarado, Joe Ross, Jordan Romano, and Orion Kerkering pitched a scoreless inning in relief. Alvarado allowed one single and a walk and struck out three. He threw five sinkers that eclipsed 100 mph.
Romano allowed a soft-contact single but retired the next three batters in order. Ross and Kerkering faced the minimum.
Quotable: “Just trying to get a feel for how they adjust to different spots in the order,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said about the lineup. “It was nice to see Trea drive a ball to the right field wall last time up. Harper’s really swinging the bat well. Bohm line drive to center field. So I liked our bats today. I really did.”
On deck: The Phillies hit the road to take on the Pirates on Friday (1:05 p.m., MLB Network, Phillies audio feed). Cristopher Sánchez is scheduled to start against Pittsburgh’s Jared Jones.