PHILADELPHIA — The third horse in the race is the least celebrated of the group, but remains within striking distance in what has become an intriguing National League Cy Young Award competition.
Aaron Nola isn’t as well-known as Jacob deGrom or Max Scherzer, but might be every bit the pitcher as those two. The Phillies ace certainly has a case.
The 25-year-old righty took the ball Friday night at Citizens Bank Park and dominated in a 4-2 Phillies win, improving to 14-3 on the season by going seven innings and giving up three hits, one run, earned, while striking out 11.
Nola lowered his ERA to 2.24, good for third in the NL which ranks behind deGrom (1.81) and Scherzer (2.11) while his 14 wins are only second to Scherzer’s 16.
Whereas deGrom and especially Scherzer have established track records, Nola’s emergence has come over the past two seasons, and another factor separates him from the Mets and Nationals aces.
“He’s not really lighting up the radar gun, so that’s maybe why he flies under the radar,” deGrom said. “But it’s definitely impressive to watch him pitch.”
Scherzer leads the NL with 234 strikeouts and deGrom — who is scheduled to face the Phillies on Saturday — is next with 195. Nola, who struck out 11 on Friday, has 160 strikeouts.
“I am not as concerned about how much national attention and exposure Aaron Nola gets, to us he is one of the best pitchers in baseball,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. “That actually hasn’t changed based on his performance this year. That’s how we felt about him in spring training and then this season’s performance and the track record he has developed is just proof of that concept.”
Nola went 12-11 with a 3.54 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 27 starts for the Phillies last season. After a solid start to this season, he has become a model of consistency, with nine straight appearances in which he had allowed three earned runs or fewer, entering Friday.
“You can go back to last year and he was showing a lot of what he is showing right now,” Kapler said. “The elevation has come in a real good stretch of consistency where every time he takes the ball we know we’re going to see the creativity.
“We know we are going to see the mound presence, we know we are going to see the fastball command. Even when he doesn’t have the fastball command early in a game, we have confidence that it’s going to come at some point in a game. So when he doesn’t hit his stride in the first or second inning, we feel we feel if we get to the sixth or the seventh it’s probably going to come out at some point, so those are some of the things he has done and done well.”
Asdrubal Cabrera, who was traded from the Mets to the Phillies on July 27, was asked to compare deGrom and Nola.
“They are different pitchers, but they are both really good,” said Cabrera, who was 1-for-4 with a double Friday. “DeGrom throws harder, but [Nola] is the same guy — they both have really good sliders.”
Though Mets manager Mickey Callaway would like to believe deGrom has the edge in the Cy Young race at this point, based on run prevention, there are enough opportunities remaining for even the third horse in the race, Nola, to sneak up on everyone.
“He is probably right there with all of them,” Callaway said. “I think every year when you are looking at these races it comes down to the last seven starts and what they can do. Sometimes it’s the last couple: Is this guy going to have a good one and this guy a bad one and that’s going to decide the race? I think they are all right there.
“Obviously, not just because I am his manager, but I feel Jacob is way ahead of those guys. Just from the body of work, the ability to keep runs from scoring and basically because of the situation he’s been in is more impressive to me.”
