Phillies' Aaron Nola has the full support of his teammates amid struggles

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Phillies' Aaron Nola has the full support of his teammates amid struggles originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

This season, Philadelphia Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola has not shed the struggles that plagued him last year. Through 10 starts, the Phillies former All-Star (2018) has a 6.04 ER, allowed 34 earned runs and nine home runs in 50.2 innings. 

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Nola had another clunker for the Phillies on Wednesday, allowing four earned runs on eight hits in five innings in the 9-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. The bright spot for Nola in his outing is that he didn't allow a walk after having five in his last two starts.

Despite struggling this season, Nola has the support of his teammates, such as his catcher, J.T. Realmuto. 

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto still believes Aaron Nola can turn things around 

Realmuto was behind the dish for Nola's outing against the Reds and feels the 32-year-old is a "small adjustment" away from getting back to being his old self. Realmuto went 0-for-4 in the loss and lowered his season batting average to .212. 

“I feel like he's [Nola] just a small adjustment away from, from being, you know, you saw how good he was in the first inning today,” Realmuto said to NBC Sports Philadelphia postgame. “It’s still in there, I think it all comes for me, it all comes down to command and being able to throw the ball where he wants, that's always when he's been at his best. But yeah, I'm confident he'll, him and Caleb [Cotham] together figure it out.”

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Realmuto added: “We're all pulling for him to get through it, and we have confidence that he will.”

Nola's struggles are perplexing and need to be figured out, as he has now put together a large enough sample size that there's more than a potential injury at play. In 17 starts last season -- Nola was limited due to a right ankle injury -- Nola went 5-10 with a 6.01 ERA. 

The major issue for Nola is that hitters are teeing off on his four-seam fastball. On 227 pitches (50 plate appearances), hitters are batting .432 against his four-seamer and slugging .977. This is a stark contrast to when hitters hit .230 and slugged .529 last season (475 pitches) and .167 and .316 in 2024 (883 pitches). 

Nola figuring out how to effectively pitch with his four-seam fastball is imperative for him to turn his season around. Working with pitching coach Caleb Cotham should help, but with an over-6.00 ERA, what more can Cotham do on his end to help Nola? 

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