Many ace pitchers have had struggles to start the MLB season and Monday’s showdown in San Diego features one pitcher who had a bad start to the season, but has since recaptured his form for the Phillies.

Though Aaron Nola has had his ERA go from 2.37 in 2018 to 4.19 this season, he is 6-0 in 2019 and the Phillies won all six of his May starts. He has also looked more like his normal self after registering a 6.84 ERA the first five starts of the season, dropping his ERA to a 2.50 over the past seven.

In that time, he also gave up fewer than 0.7 home runs per nine innings, compared to 2.5 per nine he gave up in his first five starts. On top of all that, he gave up three or more runs in four of his first five starts. Since then, he has given up three runs in two of his past seven and just one in each of the other five.

The Phillies also have a sneaky relief corps that ranks eighth in the MLB in bullpen ERA. Despite the Padres having Kirby Yates, who is the only reliever with over 20 saves in the majors, they rank 15th because the guys other than Craig Stammen who set Yates up are far from effective, with four relievers that have appeared in at least 16 games clocking in with an ERA north of 4.60.

With Eric Lauer starting on the mound for the Padres, who has given up one earned run in each of his past three starts, those bridge bullpen arms could be paramount considering Lauer has only gone past the sixth inning in just one start this season.

With Bryce Harper hitting over .300 the past three weeks since a slow start to the season coupled with the Padres entering the week hitting .232 as a collective, the Phillies certainly have a lot of advantages to go along with an ace that has found his touch.

The Play: Phillies, -125