In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Philadelphia Phillies up 2-0 vs. the New York Mets, Aaron Nola came to the mound, faced three batters, and after throwing three pitches, the inning was over. This is the 202nd time in MLB history that three outs were recorded in the minimum amount of throws.
The Entire Bottom of the 7th for Aaron Nola.
3 Pitches. 85 seconds (with no editing). pic.twitter.com/qM9cfL0YGF
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 14, 2024
The first batter was Starling Marte, who hit a lead-off single to right field, after breaking his bat. Then the next hitter Francisco Lindor hit a line drive to second baseman, Cody Clemens. That is when the third batter in the inning, Pete Alonso, came to the plate and hit a ground ball to the third baseman, the Phllies converted the 6-4-3 double play, ending the inning in less than 85 seconds.
Even after giving up a hit, Nola only pitched three pitches. Despite how low the odds of this happening is, it was actually done last season on May 29, 2023, when Giants' pitcher Anthony DeSclafani gave up a double on the first pitch of the game vs. the Pirates; then he ended the top of the first inning by only throwing two more pitches, with a line out to centerfield, and a fly-out double play.
Nola was dealing on the mound, and his three-pitch inning, permitted him to record a complete game, as he pitched 109 pitches in nine scoreless innings, had eight strikeouts, giving up only four hits.
After finishing his fourth-career MLB shutout, sixth-career complete game, the Phillies manager Rob Thompson gave the 30-year-old ace pitcher high praise, "He was fantastic. I mean, he had everything going. Located his fastball. The curveball was really good. He changed speeds, got soft contact, he was really efficient."
After the game Nola was asked about his three-pitch inning, "That was fun, actually." Baseball does seem to be more fun when you are playing the Mets.
Through 10 starts in 2024, Nola has six wins, two losses with a 3.10 ERA, 1.09 WHIP. With attention to how exceptional the Phillies' starting pitcher rotation has been so far this year, despite having the second-lowest Earned Run Average of his career this season, Nola is currently third on the team, behind Zack Wheeler (2.53 ERA) and Ranger Suarez (1.50 ERA).
That is to say, after facing Nola today, the Mets will have to face Suarez next game, in which the Venezuelan pitcher has a league-leading 0.72 WHIP, and has the best record (7-0) in the MLB so far this season.
The Phillies are atop the NL East division with a 30-13 record. On the other hand, the Mets have fallen to a 19-22 record, and are now 10 games back behind Philadelphia.
