🔔 A Deal with the Devil?

_{LAST GAME: BRAVES 9 - PHILLIES 3}

_{NEXT GAME: Phillies (Aaron Nola) vs. Braves (Bryce Elder)}

_{Today, 12:20 EDT | NBCSP, 94WIP}

Good morning. Not much good to discuss following the Braves’ 9-3 beatdown of the Phillies last night. Spencer Strider (7IP, 4H, 3ER, 11K) dominated the Phillies for the second time in six days, while Ronald Acuña Jr. moved within one home run of the first 40-homer/60-steal season in MLB history.

Cristopher Sanchez wasn’t sharp, Michael Lorenzen was a total mess, and the Phillies didn’t score until the competitive portion of the game was over.

Oh, and the Marlins, Diamondbacks, and Cubs all won last night. Good times.

In the email today:

It was only 42 days ago that Michael Lorenzen threw a 124-pitch no-hitter against the Washington Nationals. A lot has changed since then for Lorenzen, and none of it has been good.

Making his first relief appearance of the season, Lorenzen was a disaster. He entered a 3-0 game in the fifth inning and immediately lit it on fire with this sequence:

Single, steal, single, walk, walk, double, walk, sac fly, shower.

The Phillies want their trade deadline acquisition to contribute out of the bullpen next month, but there is a lot to clean up if that’s going to happen.

Since the no-hitter:

• Lorenzen has a 9.63 ERA over 26 1/3 innings.

• He has allowed a staggering 54 baserunners (40 hits and 14 walks).

• Opponents are hitting .351 with a 1.041 OPS against him. In other words, hitters are putting up Acuña-level production against him since early August.

• Lorenzen has never been a big strikeout guy, but after posting a 7.1 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 with the Tigers earlier this season, he’s at 5 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 with the Phillies. He’s not missing enough bats to be an effective reliever.

Our take: Lorenzen has thrown 149 innings this season. That’s 35 2/3 innings more than his previous career-high of 113 1/3 innings, which, by the way, came back in 2015. This season marks only the second time in his career that he has exceeded 100 innings pitched. While his late-season struggles make sense under that context, it doesn’t solve the Phillies’ problems.

Consider this: Last season, the Phillies acquired Noah Syndergaard at the trade deadline. He gave the Phillies a 4.12 ERA in 10 regular season games and pitched some important postseason innings. To date, Lorenzen has a 6.02 ERA in 8 games since coming to Philadelphia.

Maybe the Phillies should have been more aggressive at the deadline.

2) 🥪 A Lunchtime Take

As someone who covers the Phillies, I’m absolutely guilty of making every Aaron Nola start a referendum on what he is or will be moving forward.

I’ve been doing it for years, but ahead of his start this afternoon, I mean it. This is his last regular season opportunity to inspire any confidence about a likely postseason start in two weeks.

Why?

• His final two turns through the rotation will come against the Pirates and Mets. Maybe he goes out and pitches well, but nobody is going to throw a party over holding the 25th and 20th scoring offenses in check.

• Nola has never struggled anywhere close to this degree in his amateur or professional career. Chalking up his struggles to a lack of confidence would be a gross oversimplification of his struggles, BUT…

• He has to be questioning everything about his game right now. A quality start against the Braves represents the one remaining regular season outcome that could give him something to lean on moving forward.

Our take: No exaggeration here, today is the biggest start of Aaron Nola’s season. Forget making statements against the Braves, the Phillies need to lock up a winning road trip, secure a series win, and protect their shrinking lead for the top wild card spot. They need him today.

3) 😘 Tweet of the Day: Nick Castellanos Is What?

Congratulations to my colleague Kyle Pagan for this triumph of journalism. No question about it, this is the undisputed Philadelphia sports headline of the year.

4) 📊 Poll: Should They Have Done More?

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

…

Results from our last poll: Should Johan Rojas be the Phillies’ everyday CF next season?

The people love themselves some Johan Rojas:

Your replies…

“His fielding is a gift. He seems coachable enough to be able to be a more consistent offensive force. He’s really young so it doesn’t seem like he’d get worse, right?”

“Even if he bats .240-.250, the defense more than makes up for it. Bat him 9th and move on.”

“Electric athleticism combined with the ability to take control and command the OF on a cheap rookie contract? Yes, please.”

…

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🙏 More positive updates on Charlie Manuel, who tweeted out a thank you note yesterday.

• 🏆 Congrats to Justin Crawford for being named Florida State League MVP. 

• 🥇 Could Bryson Stott be in line for a Gold Glove?

• 🤺 A breakdown of the Phillies’ potential first round postseason matchups.

• 🎙️ Relive the sounds of a blowout loss.

The newsletter today was written by: Bob Wankel (Follow on X)

Thanks for reading!