Aaron Nola Showed One Positive Sign for Phillies Despite Loss to Royals

The 2026 MLB season has been an incredibly difficult one for Philadelphia Phillies veteran starting pitcher Aaron Nola.

Since the start of the 2025 campaign, there have been only two pitchers who have thrown at least 150 innings and have a higher ERA than Nola has. With no options to turn to, the Phillies have to keep running Nola out there and hope that he finds something positive to build off of.

Against the Kansas City Royals, he may have found something. One of the biggest issues that he faced in 2026 was an inability to keep his team in the game and give them a chance to win because of his ineffectiveness and short outings.

He pitched into the sixth inning only two times in 11 starts. Under interim manager Don Mattingly, Nola hadn’t reached the 100-pitch plateau in a single start. That hasn’t been an issue exclusively to working under Mattingly, as he hasn’t reached 100 pitches in 27 consecutive outings.

Aaron Nola delivers excellent start against Royals

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola. — Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola (27) throws to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the sixth inning during Game 2 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on Oct. 17, 2023. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

While the streak of not throwing at least 100 pitches continued in his most recent outing against the Royals, the veteran righty pitched seven effective innings. He threw 98 pitches and was working in the zone effectively.

Nola gave up seven hits, but didn’t give up a home run for the first time since June 7, snapping a streak of four consecutive games in which he gave up two home runs apiece. It was only the sixth time in 18 starts that he didn’t give up a long ball.

Another encouraging development was how many strikeouts he recorded. He had seven, tied for the third most in a single outing in 2026. Nola also didn’t issue a single walk, which is only the fifth time he has done that this season.

FINAL: Royals 5, Phillies 2
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) July 5, 2026

Nola suffered his sixth loss of the season, with Philadelphia going down 5-2. However, it was a very encouraging outing, with the veteran doing everything he could to keep his team in the game and give them a chance to win. The offense, which has been performing better, just didn’t have it against Luinder Avila and the Royals’ pitching staff.

It will be interesting to see if Nola can keep up this level of performance moving forward. The Phillies know he isn’t a front-end rotation starter any longer, but he has proven in the past to still be an effective innings-eater at the backend.

If he can return to that level, it will be a massive help to a Philadelphia bullpen that has looked overextended at points this year.

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